Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in Colombia
Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in Colombia

Author: Fabio Andres Diaz Pabon

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-05-11

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1351373684

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The signing of the peace agreements between the FARC-EP and the Colombian Government in late November 2016 has generated new prospects for peace in Colombia, opening the possibility of redressing the harm inflicted on Colombians by Colombians. Talking about peace and transitional justice requires us to think about how to operationalize peace agreements to promote justice and coexistence for peace. This volume brings together reflections by Colombian academics and practitioners alongside pieces provided by researchers and practitioners in other countries where transitional justice initiatives have taken place (Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Peru). This volume has been written in the south, by the south, for the south. The book engages with the challenges ahead for the coming generations of Colombians. Rivers of ink have dealt with the end goals of transitional justice, but victims require us to take the quest for human rights beyond the normative realm of theorizing justice and into the practical realm of engaging how to implement justice initiatives. The tension between theory—the legislative frameworks guaranteeing human rights—and practice—the realization of these ideas—will frame Colombia’s success (or failure) in consolidating the implementation of the peace agreements with the FARC-EP.

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and the Colombian Justice and Peace Law and Victims
Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and the Colombian Justice and Peace Law and Victims

Author: Evelio Jesús Yera

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13:

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This dissertation answers the question of what the proper balance is for victims with respect to the formation of a truth or truth and reconciliation commission that is formed to address the aftermath of an authoritarian regime or armed conflict. A review of the historical operation of entities that have operated in the aftermath of authoritarian regimes and armed conflict is conducted in this dissertation. From the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials to the present day, nations have struggled to try to devise a systematic way to deal with the aftermath of harm caused to victims as a consequence of authoritarian regimes and armed conflict. An examination of the various past truth and reconciliation commissions, the International Criminal Court, and various treaties is here juxtaposed with the Colombian Justice and Peace program implemented a decade ago to bring about peace and reconciliation in Colombia. This dissertation concludes that an entity formed with the purpose of achieving the proper balance for victims of an authoritarian regime or armed conflict, must have a truth-telling component that works in tandem with a specialized court conceived with the objective of operating alongside the commission. Thus, while there is a punitive aspect, the focus is more on the relationship between the events, solutions, and relief provided for victims. An entity with such a focus has various components, including truth-telling and some form of sanction or punishment, but always with the betterment of the past, present, and future victims as well as the subject society or country as its priority. In that vein, a set of proposed flexible guidelines are presented as the culmination of this dissertation. The flexible guidelines proposed here set forth a balanced system between the commission and the court that will provide for both punishment and reconciliation for particular countries and the victims.

Transitional Justice in Colombia
Transitional Justice in Colombia

Author: Pat Paterson

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 29

ISBN-13:

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"On September 23, 2015, the Colombian government announced a breakthrough in the peace talks between government representatives and the largest insurgent group in the country. Over the three previous years, the government and representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, People's Army (commonly referred to as FARC-EP by its abbreviation in Spanish) had met in Cuba dozens of times to try to resolve issues like land reform, the political participation of the FARC, and the cessation of drug trafficking. The two groups revealed that they had reached an agreement on these and other complex issues ... The government and FARC representatives agreed to conduct a lengthy investigation of the 50-year conflict. A truth commission would be established to investigate the numerous atrocities, massacres, forced disappearances, and other crimes. Human rights trials would be held for the gravest crimes. An amnesty program would pardon minor crimes committed during the conflict and alleviate pressure on the judicial system, permitting it to focus on what promises to be a monumental task. In this article, I examine how the Colombia truth commission -- formally called the Commission for Clarifying Truth, Harmony, and Non-Repetition -- should be conducted by providing a comparative analysis of other Latin American truth commissions, focusing on their charters, what they accomplished, and what they failed to achieve. Three transitional justice elements are critical to understanding Colombia's challenge: truth, justice, and reconciliation. I also analyze common truth commission objectives like accountability and justice"--Page 3.

As War Ends
As War Ends

Author: James Meernik

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-07-25

Total Pages: 447

ISBN-13: 1108585671

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For decades a bitter civil war between the Colombia government and armed insurgent groups tore apart Colombian society. After protracted negotiations in Havana, a peace agreement was accepted by the Colombian government and the FARC rebel group in 2016. This volume will provide academics and practitioners throughout the world with critical analyses regarding what we know generally about the post-war peace building process and how this can be applied to the specifics of the Colombian case to assist in the design and implementation of post-war peace building programs and policies. This unique group of Colombian and international scholars comment on critical aspects of the peace process in Colombia, transitional justice mechanisms, the role of state and non-state actors at the national and local levels, and examine what the Colombian case reveals about traditional theories and approaches to peace and transitional justice.

Justice and Reconciliation in World Politics
Justice and Reconciliation in World Politics

Author: Catherine Lu

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-11-16

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1108420117

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This book examines how justice and reconciliation in world politics should be conceived in response to the injustice and alienation of modern colonialism?

Between Reconciliation and Justice
Between Reconciliation and Justice

Author: Gabriel Gomez Sanchez

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13:

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Over the past decades, Colombian society has endured the impact of a longstanding political conflict among different actors and outrageous expressions of violence, especially among left wing guerrillas, right wing paramilitary groups and the state government. Drawing on socio-legal studies in transitional justice and human rights, this research attempts to analyze the recent experience of transitional justice in Colombia. The main purpose of this research is to understand how political, institutional and social actors, especially the government, the courts, the human rights and transitional justice NGOs, and victims associations, frame the mechanisms of transitional justice and use legal instruments to transform the conflict and reach what they consider "justice." It also attempts to understand the relations between politics and law in the context of a hegemonic discourse of security and give account of the expressions of resistance of human rights networks. In doing so, this research advances theory on literature about law and society and transitional justice by means of applying and expanding the theoretical framework of socio-legal research via the process of transitional justice in Colombia. The dissertation presents information gathered in the field in Colombia between July 2009 and July 2010 through a qualitative research design based on document analysis and in-depth interviews with members of different international and domestic human rights organizations, victims' organizations and national institutions. The research explains how these organizations combined political and legal actions in order to contest a project of security, and more specifically a project of impunity that came from negotiations with the paramilitary groups. The research also explains how the human rights networks not only mobilized internationally to gain political support from the international community, but also how these organizations contributed to transform the political debate about victims' rights. The research also explains how the human rights organizations and victims' groups articulated the global discourse on human rights and the local and domestic meanings constructed by the emerging movements of victims. Finally, the research analyses the relevance of legal practices consisting on strategic use of law in order to protect the victims of human rights violations.

Transitional Justice in Latin America
Transitional Justice in Latin America

Author: Elin Skaar

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-10-27

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1317526201

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This book addresses current developments in transitional justice in Latin America – effectively the first region to undergo concentrated transitional justice experiences in modern times. Using a comparative approach, it examines trajectories in truth, justice, reparations, and amnesties in countries emerging from periods of massive violations of human rights and humanitarian law. The book examines the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, developing and applying a common analytical framework to provide a systematic, qualitative and comparative analysis of their transitional justice experiences. More specifically, the book investigates to what extent there has been a shift from impunity towards accountability for past human rights violations in Latin America. Using ‘thick’, but structured, narratives – which allow patterns to emerge, rather than being imposed – the book assesses how the quality, timing and sequencing of transitional justice mechanisms, along with the context in which they appear, have mattered for the nature and impact of transitional justice processes in the region. Offering a new approach to assessing transitional justice, and challenging many assumptions in the established literature, this book will be of enormous benefit to scholars and others working in this area.

Rebelocracy
Rebelocracy

Author: Ana Arjona

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-12-07

Total Pages: 431

ISBN-13: 1316867439

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Conventional wisdom portrays war zones as chaotic and anarchic. In reality, however, they are often orderly. This work introduces a new phenomenon in the study of civil war: wartime social order. It investigates theoretically and empirically the emergence and functioning of social order in conflict zones. By theorizing the interaction between combatants and civilians and how they impact wartime institutions, the study delves into rebel behavior, civilian agency and their impact on the conduct of war. Based on years of fieldwork in Colombia, the theory is tested with qualitative and quantitative evidence on communities, armed groups, and individuals in conflict zones. The study shows how armed groups strive to rule civilians, and how the latter influence the terms of that rule. The theory and empirical results illuminate our understanding of civil war, institutions, local governance, non-violent resistance, and the emergence of political order.

Young People and Everyday Peace
Young People and Everyday Peace

Author: Helen Berents

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-03-19

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 1351368206

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Young People and Everyday Peace is grounded in the stories of young people who live in Los Altos de Cazucá, an informal peri-urban community in Soacha, to the south of Colombia’s capital Bogotá. The occupants of this community have fled the armed conflict and exist in a state of marginalisation and social exclusion amongst ongoing violences conducted by armed gangs and government forces. Young people negotiate these complexities and offer pointed critiques of national politics as well as grounded aspirations for the future. Colombia’s protracted conflict and its effects on the population raise many questions about how we think about peacebuilding in and with communities of conflict-affected people. Building on contemporary debates in International Relations about post-liberal, everyday peace, Helen Berents draws on feminist International Relations and embodiment theory to pay meaningful attention to those on the margins. She conceptualises a notion of embodied-everyday-peace-amidst-violence to recognise the presence and voice of young people as stakeholders in everyday efforts to respond to violence and insecurity. In doing so, Berents argues for and engages a more complex understanding of the everyday, stemming from the embodied experiences of those centrally present in conflicts. Taking young people’s lives and narratives seriously recognises the difficulties of protracted conflict, but finds potential to build a notion of an embodied everyday amidst violence, where a complex and fraught peace can be found. Young People and Everyday Peace will be of interest to scholars of Latin American Studies, International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies.

Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century
Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century

Author: Naomi Roht-Arriaza

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006-09-14

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 1139458655

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Dealing with the aftermath of civil conflict or the fall of a repressive government continues to trouble countries throughout the world. Whereas much of the 1990s was occupied with debates concerning the relative merits of criminal prosecutions and truth commissions, by the end of the decade a consensus emerged that this either/or approach was inappropriate and unnecessary. A second generation of transitional justice experiences have stressed both truth and justice and recognize that a single method may inadequately serve societies rebuilding after conflict or dictatorship. Based on studies in ten countries, this book analyzes how some combine multiple institutions, others experiment with community-level initiatives that draw on traditional law and culture, whilst others combine internal actions with transnational or international ones. The authors argue that transitional justice efforts must also consider the challenges to legitimacy and local ownership emerging after external military intervention or occupation.