2,800 union activists killed in Colombia since 1984: UNDP report

According to a UN Development Program (UNDP) report issued on Monday, more than 2,800 union activists and union workers were murdered from 1984 to 2011.

The report added that there were 216 unexplained disappearances, 163 kidnappings, and 83 cases of torture during the period.

"Determining who committed these crimes is key to getting at the truth, justice and reparations: it isn't easy... since 78 percent of these crimes have no alleged perpetrator," report coordinator Carlos Miguel Ortiz told reporters.

Colombia has been experiencing violent conflict since the 1960s, when peasant guerrilla groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) took up arms against the government.

And since the rise of pro-government paramilitary groups in the 1980s, trade unionists have been subject to violent attacks.

However, according to the International Trade Union Confederation, only 4 percent of the workforce is unionized.