Acid attacks on the rise in Colombia

Dozens of women in Colombia are soaked with sulphuric or nitric acids by assailants each year.

In 2012, there were 55 reported cases of acid attacks against women, making Colombia the only nation in the western hemisphere where such attacks have become common.

Though deaths have been reported from them, the current penal code in Colombia does not recognise acid attacks as a grave crime.

Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman reports from Bogota, where a campaign is under way to get the attacks classified as attempted murder and to regulate the sale of the basic household products commonly used in the assaults.