The Vice-Ministry performs its duties within the legal frame established and the regulations, guidelines, and objectives of the National Plan of Development, with actions that tend to consolidate defense policy and democratic security.

These duties are focused on:

• Promoting a local security and citizen coexistence policy in order to overcome displacement caused by violence and human trafficking.

• Guaranteeing and promoting Human Rights and the Humanitarian International Right.

• Continuing programs of protection to threatened people and the consolidation of processes created to decrease risk factors of focused communities.

• Strengthening risk management in order to prevent and handle disasters.

• Developing general and specific strategies that benefit every ethnic and minority group with respect to integrated and differentiated strategies in regional dimension in order to promote a well-balanced territorial development.

According to decree 200 of 2003, article 10 assigns the following functions to the Vice-Ministry:

1. To supply temporary absences of the Minister when requested by the President of the Republic.

2. To advise the Minister when formulating and adopting policies of the Ministry, especially those related to internal public order; citizen, community, and democratic participation; coexistence; human rights; prevention and management of disasters; and the control coordination of the missionary management of the entity.

3. To coordinate and follow up all the activities of missionary areas that belong to the Ministry and that are assigned by the Minister in order to guarantee the complete fulfillment of their functions, programs, and projects.

4. To coordinate the relationships of the Ministry with all the other public entities for the correct execution of sectorial plans.

5. To represent the Minister in the official activities assigned by him, especially in cabinet meetings, assemblies, or other collegiate organizations that must attend.

6. To direct the preparation of reports related to the development of policies, plans, and programs to be presented by the Minister.

7. To permanently evaluate and follow up the execution of international commitments regarding human rights.

8. To plan, coordinate, and establish policies and guidelines in order to direct, in coordination with the Minister, the orientation of the political frame of a Social State of Law, autonomy, and territorial governability.

9. To support the Minister in the design and promotion of law projects and legislative acts before the Congress of the Republic in matters related to the objectives, mission, and functions of the Ministry, and with his relationships with the Congress of the Republic.

10. To exercise under his own responsibility the functions delegated or assigned by law and to observe the fulfillment of the ones assigned to departments of the Ministry and/or to its employees through legal regulation.

11. To participate in the orientation, coordination, and exercise of the administrative control of the entities ascribed and related to the Ministry, according to the regulation established on that matter and to the instructions imparted by the Minister.

12. To guarantee internal control and supervise its effectiveness and the observance of his recommendations regarding pertinent matters within his scope. 13. All the other functions assigned by law about pertinent matters within the scope of the Ministry.