Event Summary
On 21 July 2025, members of Congress backed by Cambio Radical filed a new statutory bill that recognises the constitutional right to protest but proposes strict regulations for demonstrations on public roads that affect the mobility, health, work or safety of third parties. This development follows the shelving of the Statutory Bill 166 of 2024 by Congress in May 2025. This was an initiative developed in dialogue with social organisations, the Ministry of the Interior and the OHCHR. The bill sought to regulate, guarantee, and protect the right to peaceful social protest, complying with national and international standards and strengthening the legal framework for safe public demonstrations. This new bill comes at a time when Colombia is undergoing a period of mobilisation and debate on social justice, and could redefine the practice of the right to protest in the country.
The shelving of the bill that sought to protect the right to protest exacerbates the vulnerability of this right, at a time when the country is experiencing social tensions and requires flexibility in citizen participation. The new bill promoted by Cambio Radical, although it seeks to balance rights, could restrict the capacity to protest if clear safeguards are not guaranteed. It rejects the dialogue that had been built with civil society actors and the United Nations, while having a risk of restricting effective protest in practice, placing bureaucratic barriers, justifying intervention and possibly criminalising demonstrations in strategic public spaces. Its focus represents a regulatory shift that could place additional barriers to peaceful protest.