Javier Giraldo

Javier Giraldo Moreno (1944 – 25 August 2026), known in his community as Father Javier, was a Colombian Jesuit priest and human rights activist. He helped found and subsequently worked as an investigator for the CINEP / Peace Program magazine , documenting human rights abuses. Cases he documented included the 1988–1991 massacres in Trujillo and killings of members of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community, including a 2005 massacre. Due to his work, he received threats to his life and was forced to leave Colombia on multiple occasions.

Giraldo wrote multiple books on the Colombian conflict and maintained a database of killings and disapperances. In 1997, he was awarded the Canadian John Humphrey Freedom Award for his work in human rights.

Early life and education Javier Giraldo Moreno was born in Colombia in 1944.

He attended the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, where he earned a degree in philosophy and a master's degree in theology; he also studied social sciences at the University of Paris. For the organization, Giraldo compiled a data bank recording killings, massacres, and disappearances in the Colombian conflict; as of 2010, it was "the only comprehensive record" of such data. he announced he was giving the $30,000 award to the U'wa people, many of whom were threatening a mass suicide in response to Occidental Petroleum plans to drill for oil on their lands. He was offered police protection by the Colombian government, which he refused.

Giraldo opposed Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, whom he accused of recruiting paramilitary groups and spying on the opposition. Giraldo accused Colombian military officials of participating in the massacres and presented evidence implicating them.

Death Giraldo died at the San Ignacio Hospital in Bogotá, on 25 August 2026, at the age of 82, after experiencing a fall at his residence.