By Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA (AlertNet) - Colombia needs to do more to prosecute against forced displacement in a country where hundreds of thousands of people continue to be pushed from their homes every year by armed groups, the United Nations has said.

Violence carried out by warring factions during the country’s nearly five-decades conflict, including by right-wing paramilitary groups and leftist rebels, has uprooted nearly 4 million Colombians from their homes and lands.

During a meeting convened this week by Colombia’s constitutional court to monitor progress made on tackling the country’s displacement crisis, the head of the U.N. agency for refugees (UNHCR) in Colombia, Terry Morel, said the Colombian authorities have made little headway in prosecuting those responsible for forced displacement.

“We highlighted our concerns that there is still a high level of impunity relating to crimes of forced displacement,” Morel told Colombian CM& news channel in an interview following the meeting with the court.

Morel said some progress had been made by Colombia’s attorney general in investigating crimes involving displacement, including the creation of a special investigation unit and better training of judges, but that more convictions need to be handed down.

More than 1,400 displaced Colombians were killed by illegal armed groups from 2007 to 2010, Morel added.

Colombia’s attorney general, Viviane Morales, defended her record in making progress in prosecuting those responsible for forced displacement after one year in the post.

Morales said the attorney general’s office is dealing with nearly 16,500 cases involving forced displacement, which has led to 53 sentences involving some 200 people responsible for using violence to force people off their lands.

"These figures are still very modest,” Morales told CM& news channel, “but sometimes officials feel overwhelmed by the immense workload … that we have with what has been the conflict in Colombia."

(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)