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COLOMBIA [1]
General
Information
Colombia is a unitary state divided into thirty-one departamentos. Its
population in 2004 was 45,302,000, and 76.6% of the
inhabitants lived in urban areas[2].
Population grew an average of 1.7% per year over the last five years, while age
distribution at the beginning of that period was as follows: 32.7% between 0 and
14 years of age; 35.6% between 15 and 34; 18.3% between 35 and 49; 8.7% between
50 and 64; and 4.7%, over the age of 65. The illiteracy rate for adults over the
age of 15 was 8.4% in 2000, 3% lower than in 1990. Life
expectancy for 2000–2005 was 72.2 years. In 2002, 50.6% of Colombians lived
below the poverty line, a 4% improvement over 1999. However, extreme poverty
remained steady during this period at 23.7%. After registering negative (-4.2%)
growth in 1999, the GDP reached 3.9% growth in 2003[3].
Meanwhile, per capita income was US$1,810 in 2003, with purchasing power parity
of US$6,410. The urban unemployment rate was 17.6% in 2002[4].
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Judicial System Highlights
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In 2004, the country had 10.4 judges per
100,000 inhabitants[5].
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The Judicial Branch received 1.04% of the
total public sector budget in 2004.
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In 2002, Legislative Act 03 modified the
Constitution, redefining the functions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office
(Fiscalía General de la Nación) and mandating the implementation of an
adversarial system. Law 906 of 2004 was passed in order to create an oral,
adversarial criminal procedural system.
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In 2004, there were 7.87 prosecutors and
2.47 public defenders per 100,000 inhabitants.
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That same year there were 267.24 police
officers per 100,000 inhabitants, 8% more than there had been in 2002.
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The first instance courts had a clearance
rate (cases processed/cases filed) of 102% in 2003, and
each judge faced an average caseload of 977 cases.
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Also in 2003, there were 2,850 crimes,
including 102 murders, recorded per 100,000 inhabitants.
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In December 2004, Colombia had 152.5 prison
inmates per 100,000 inhabitants, with 42.9% of all prisoners awaiting sentencing.
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In 2004, there were 304.5 attorneys per
100,000 inhabitants.
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The country’s alternative dispute
resolution and mediation programs dealt with a total of
430,467 cases in 2004.
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