Arhuaco indigenous women’s memories and the Colombian Truth Commission: methodological gaps and political tensions

AbstractThe Truth, Peaceful Coexistence, and Non-Repetition Commission (CEV) is one of the transitional justice mechanisms contained in the peace agreement signed between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla in 2016. The CEV mainstreams gender and ethnic differential approaches and is also the first to actively deploy intersectionality as a framework to approach violence committed against women of ethnic groups. The article draws on a decolonial and intercultural perspective to analyze the challenges that the CEV faces to make visible Indigenous women’s experiences and agencies during the armed conflict. Based on participatory research conducted with Arhuaco women of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to produce a report to the CEV, the article shows the methodological gaps that exist between Arhuaco women’s approaches to memory and the Truth Commission’s methodological framework. The article also argues that the Commission’s strategy to confront political dynamics within Indigenous communities that marginalize women’s processes further deepens these gaps and contributes to invisibilize their voices in this scenario.

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The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Armed Conflict

10.1093/law/9780199559695.001.0001 ◽

2014 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

International Law ◽

Transitional Justice ◽

Armed Conflict ◽

Forced Migration ◽

Armed Forces ◽

Cultural Property ◽

Historical Background ◽

The Law ◽

The Right

TheHandbookconsists of 32 Chapters in seven parts. Part I provides the historical background and sets out some of the contemporary challenges. Part II considers the relevant sources of international law. Part III describes the different legal regimes: land warfare, air warfare, maritime warfare, the law of occupation, the law applicable to peace operations, and the law of neutrality. Part IV introduces key concepts in international humanitarian law: weapons and the notion of superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering, the principle of distinction, proportionality, genocide and crimes against humanity, grave breaches and war crimes, internal armed conflict. Part V looks at key rights: the right to life, the prohibition on torture, the right to fair trial, economic, social and cultural rights, the protection of the environment, the protection of cultural property, and the human rights of the members of the armed forces. Part VI covers key issues such as: the use of force, terrorism, unlawful combatants, the application of human rights in times of armed conflict, forced migration, and issues of gender. Part VII deals with accountability issues including those related to private security companies, the need to focus on armed groups, as well as questions of state responsibility brought before national courts, and finally, the book addresses issues related to transitional justice.

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Parallel Tracks and Fraught Encounters

10.5406/illinois/9780252039423.003.0002 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Pascha Bueno-Hansen

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Rural Communities ◽

Transitional Justice ◽

Armed Conflict ◽

Armed Forces ◽

Gender Based Violence ◽

Internal Armed Conflict ◽

Justice Process ◽

Gender Based ◽

Feminist Movements

This chapter examines the struggles and gaps between the protagonism of rural Andean women, or campesinas, and the priorities of the human rights and feminist movements in Peru as they try to address the ever-growing number of victims and survivors of the internal armed conflict. The armed conflict pitted the armed forces versus the Shining Path; both sides demanded allegiance from rural communities. From the beginning, campesinas were at the forefront of local efforts to denounce human rights violations and address the needs of affected people with the help of church groups and human rights advocates. Peruvian human rights and feminist movements presented the strongest potential for taking on the defense of campesinas' rights. This chapter considers how social exclusions marginalized campesina voices in the transitional justice process and how and why, despite campesina protagonism and human rights and feminist movements' best intentions, the gender-based violence directed at campesinas during the armed conflict slipped through the cracks. It also looks at the founding of the Women for Democracy, or Mujeres por la Democracia (MUDE), in 1997.

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Legal challenges posed by the war on drugs and the fight against organized crime in Colombia

Jurídicas CUC ◽

10.17981/juridcuc.16.1.2020.16 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Antoine Perret ◽

Ruth Cristina García

Keyword(s):

Armed Forces ◽

War On Drugs ◽

International Humanitarian Law ◽

Humanitarian Law ◽

Specific Procedure ◽

Peace Agreement ◽

Drug Trafficking Organizations ◽

Legal Challenges ◽

Colombian Government ◽

The Government

This article aims to highlight the evolution of crime in Colombia and how it is a drawback to the current understanding of the applicability of international humanitarian law. The peace agreement between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-FARC, the government and the emerging armed actors are a challenge to Colombian law and legal institutions. Accordingly, the article concluded that the use of force by the Colombian government against drug trafficking organizations, or so-called Criminal Gangs-BACRIM, does not seem to be the legal way to combat them since these organizations do not necessarily participate in hostilities, which means that the government has to follow a specific procedure.

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Part IV The Right to Reparation/Guarantees of Non-Recurrence, B Guarantees of Non-Recurrence of Violations, Principle 37 Disbandment of Parastatal Armed Forces/Demobilization and Social Reintegration of Children

10.1093/law/9780198743606.003.0041 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Duthie Roger ◽

Mayer-Rieckh Alexander

Keyword(s):

Transitional Justice ◽

Armed Conflict ◽

Armed Forces ◽

Theoretical Framework ◽

Armed Conflicts ◽

Historical Background ◽

Armed Groups ◽

Social Reintegration ◽

Criminal Violence ◽

The Right

Principle 37 focuses on the disbandment of parastatal armed forces and the demobilization and social reintegration of children involved in armed conflicts. It articulates measures designed to prevent the transformation of conflict violence to criminal violence through the dismantling and reintegration of all armed groups engaged in abuses, and outlines comprehensive responses to the injustices experienced by children during armed conflict. This chapter first provides a contextual and historical background on Principle 37 before discussing its theoretical framework and practice. It then examines the importance of reintegration processes and how they can be affected by transitional justice measures, along with their implications for former child combatants. It also highlights the relevance of measures for dealing with unofficial armed groups from an impunity standpoint, as well as the efforts of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs to address them.

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Introduction to Symposium on the Colombian Peace Talks and International Law

AJIL Unbound ◽

10.1017/s2398772300003007 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 110 ◽

pp. 161-164 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Alexandra Huneeus ◽

René Urueña

Keyword(s):

International Law ◽

Armed Conflict ◽

Secretary General ◽

Peace Agreement ◽

Secretary Of State ◽

Political Events ◽

Colombian Government ◽

Historic Memory ◽

The U.S

In September and October of 2016, Colombians witnessed a series of political events that defied their belief. First, the Colombian Government and theFuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—Ejército del Pueblo(FARC—EP), signed to great fanfare a historic peace agreement finalizing Colombia’s armed conflict. The Un Secretary-General, the U.S. Secretary of State, and dozens other top diplomats and heads of states gathered in Cartagena for an emotional signing ceremony, symbolically ending a fifty-year armed confrontation that, according to the Colombian Center for Historic Memory, killed more than two hundred thousand people, 80 percent of which were noncombatants.

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Different mechanisms, same result: Remembering the liberation war in Mozambique

Memory Studies ◽

10.1177/1750698021995993 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 175069802199599

Author(s):

Natália Bueno

Keyword(s):

Transitional Justice ◽

Path Dependence ◽

Memory Studies ◽

Truth Commission ◽

Peace Agreement ◽

The Past ◽

War Narrative ◽

Critical Junctures ◽

The Government ◽

The One

Even though scholars have made substantial contributions in connecting the fields of transitional justice and memory studies, important questions remain unanswered. The question of sequencing is one of them. How does a certain TJ mechanism condition the implementation of subsequent mechanisms and how together they shape memory narratives in a given society? This article builds on the case of Mozambique. Soon after the signing of the General Peace Agreement in 1992, the Frelimo-led government approved Amnesty Law 15/92 and with it, the past was to be left in the past. Such a choice was different from the one taken by Samora Machel—Mozambique’s first president—between 1975 and 1982. By promoting a quasi-truth commission, Machel revisited Mozambique’s colonial past and brought comprometidos’ actions into the open. This article finds that whether the government opened up about the past or sought to leave it behind, the result has been the same: the celebratory reproduction of the liberation war narrative. Resorting to path dependence and critical junctures, this study explains the ways in which such a narrative has become hegemonic throughout the last four decades.

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Infraestructuras para la paz y Justicia Transicional en Colombia

Revista Reflexiones ◽

10.15517/rr.v97i2.28849 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 97 (2) ◽

pp. 123 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tania Galaviz Armenta

Keyword(s):

Social Participation ◽

Transitional Justice ◽

Armed Conflict ◽

Social Groups ◽

Armed Forces ◽

Territorial Development ◽

La Paz ◽

Creative Commons ◽

Documentary Analysis ◽

Negotiation Processes

ResumenEl artículo analiza la interacción entre la Justicia Transicional y las Infraestructuras para la Paz. Para ello, se presentan algunas de las características del conflicto armado y los procesos de negociación con las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia durante el periodo 1982-2016, así como los antecedentes de la Justicia Transicional en dicho país. Además, se examinan las Infraestructuras para la paz, entendidas como mecanismos que generan dinámicas de interdependencia entre distintos grupos sociales para la construcción de paz. Derivado de un análisis documental se concluye que, en el caso colombiano, la Justicia Transicional interactúa con las Infraestructuras para la Paz al vincular el cumplimiento de las sanciones restaurativas con las acciones para el desarrollo territorial comunitario realizadas desde los Comités Locales de Paz.Palabras clave: Construcción de paz, Víctimas, Participación social, Conflicto armado, FARC Infrastructures for Peace and Transitional Justice in Colombia AbstractThe article analyzes Colombia’s interaction between its Transitional Justice and its Infrastructures for Peace. For this purpose, the article presents some of the characteristics of the armed conflict and negotiation processes associated to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia during the period 1982-2016 along with the country’s Transitional Justice background. In addition, itexamines the Infrastructures for Peace, understood as mechanisms that generate interdependence dynamics between different social groups for peacebuilding. From a documentary analysis, it is concluded that Colombian Transitional Justice interacts with its Infrastructures for Peace by connecting the compliance of restorative sanctions to the actions for the community territorial development carried out by Local Peace Committees.Key Words: Peacebuilding, Victims, Social participation, armed conflict, FARC Acerca del proceso editorial y sus publicaciones la revista Reflexiones utiliza la licencia Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

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Aproximaciones al derecho a la verdad en la justicia transicional, en Colombia

REVISTA CONTROVERSIA ◽

10.54118/controver.vi217.1238 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 121-162

Author(s):

Vera Samudio ◽

Alejandra Figueredo

Keyword(s):

Transitional Justice ◽

Justice System ◽

Peace Agreement ◽

The Right To Know ◽

Lasting Peace ◽

Colombian Government ◽

Rational Character ◽

Final Agreement ◽

The Right ◽

Peace And Reconciliation

Resumen: La configuración de la verdad como el derecho a “saber qué ocurrió”, es uno de los pilares fundamentales del sistema de justicia transicional implementado tras la firma del Acuerdo Final de Paz entre el Gobierno colombiano y las FARC-EP. En la verdad se ha depositado parte im- portante de la esperanza por la construcción de una paz estable y duradera, y de la reconciliación en el país. En el presente artículo se sostiene que el derecho a la verdad en el funcionamiento del Sistema Integral de Verdad, Justicia, Reparación y No Repetición (sIvJRnR) se experimenta como una construcción ética, jurídica, política y fáctica, que se desarrolla en el marco de un proceso relacional, multidireccional y polifónico, que va cambiando, modificándose y perfeccionándose en el tiempo, y puede pasar, según las necesidades y problemas a resolver, de tener un carácter puramente instrumental y racional, a uno ampliamente axiológico y moral. Para ello, se presenta una propuesta de operacionalización de esta verdad en respuesta a interrogantes sobre su com- prensión: ¿Qué? ¿Cómo? ¿Para qué? ¿Cuándo? y ¿Quién? Approaches to the Right to Truth in Transitional Justice in Colombia Abstract: The truth’s configuration as the right to “know what happened” has become one of the fundamental pillars of the transitional justice system implemented after signing the Final Peace Agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP. Thus, in truth, lays the hope for building a stable and lasting peace and reconciliation in the country. This article sustains that the right to the truth in the operation of the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition (sIvJRnR) is experienced as an ethical, legal, political and factual construction that is developed within the framework of a relational, multidirectional and polyphonic process. This construction is changing, modifying and improving through time and can go, depending on the needs and problems to be solved, from having a purely instrumental and rational character to a broadly axiological and moral one. To this end, a proposal for operationalisation of this truth is presented in response to questions about its understanding: What? How? Why? When? and Who? Keywords: Truth, Transitional Justice, Final Agreement, SIVJRNR

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Dealing with the Past or Moving Forward? Transitional Justice, the Bangsamoro Peace Agreement and Federalism in the Philippines

International Criminal Law Review ◽

10.1163/15718123-bja10066 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-28

Author(s):

Jayson S. Lamchek ◽

George B. Radics

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Transitional Justice ◽

Armed Conflict ◽

The Philippines ◽

Peace Agreement ◽

Authoritarian Rule ◽

Human Rights Abuses ◽

The Past ◽

Land Dispossession ◽

The Government

Abstract In the Philippines, transitional justice is plagued by questions about whether and how to deal with the past as well as whether and what kind of justice is possible in the present. In 2014, the government ended its armed conflict with Muslim secessionists by enacting a peace deal with transitional justice provisions, but also proposed federalism as a more lasting solution to conflict. This article reads the agreement’s ‘dealing with the past’ framework as reflecting a conventional approach. It then highlights continuing Muslim experiences of land dispossession and human rights abuses. It shows how transitional justice can come with uncertainty about what it means to “move forward,” what “past” to overcome, and how the past is related to “justice.” Furthermore, it argues that as the country increasingly veers towards authoritarian rule, conventional applications of transitional justice are further impeded. It explores how federalism receives more enthusiastic support than transitional justice.

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Epilogue

The Sit Room ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190860639.003.0008 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 279-284

Author(s):

David Scheffer

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Vietnam War ◽

Korean War ◽

Armed Forces ◽

The United States ◽

Armed Conflicts ◽

Peace Agreement ◽

The Korean War ◽

Colombian Government ◽

Syrian Conflict

A result from which “all ugliness will flow again.” WARREN CHRISTOPHER THE BOSNIAN WAR took three years of intensive diplomacy to end, while combat and atrocities were unremitting. The talking phase of armed conflicts has veered wildly from days to decades in recent history, and often failed completely when one side fought to achieve outright military victory. There were no negotiations to end World War II; only total defeat of the Axis Powers sufficed. The Korean War ended in a stalemate absent any substantive talks, and the United States and North Korea remained, technically, at war, for decades thereafter. Negotiations to end the Vietnam War began in 1968 and continued into the next decade only to be eclipsed by the total victory of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces in 1975. The catastrophic Syrian conflict began in 2011 and continued unabated despite years of U.N.-sponsored talks in Geneva. The Colombian government and the indigenous guerilla group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People’s Army (FARC), finally ended their civil war in 2016 with a peace agreement after 26 years of on-again, off-again negotiations....

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