Publicado por Verdad Abierta el 25 de octubre de 2020.
The former top paramilitary figure, facing extradition back to Colombia from the United States, changed his story about the 2001 murder of an indigenous leader.
October 25, 2020
Publicado por Verdad Abierta el 25 de octubre de 2020.
The former top paramilitary figure, facing extradition back to Colombia from the United States, changed his story about the 2001 murder of an indigenous leader.
October 25, 2020
Publicado por la Corporación Jurídica Libertad y otras organizaciones el 1 de octubre de 2020.
A report, submitted to the transitional justice system, about extrajudicial executions committed by the Colombian Army’s Medellín-based 4th Brigade.
October 1, 2020
Publicado por Razón Pública el 21 de septiembre de 2020.
Profiles of some former AUC paramilitary leaders and the crimes they still need to clarify or confess.
September 21, 2020
Publicado por Verdad Abierta el 21 de septiembre de 2020.
A history of how deeply ingrained the practice of kidnapping was for the FARC during the conflict.
September 21, 2020
Published by JusticeInfo on September 14, 2020.
Poor maintenance to a victims’ memorial in Antioquia is emblematic of how Colombia’s historical memory initiatives are “floundering.”
September 14, 2020
On August 26, the United Nations Security Council received a statement, signed by WOLA and a wide array of Colombian and international organizations, advising the council’s members to ensure the complete implementation of the final peace accord signed by the Colombian State and the FARC.
The statement underscores the Colombian government’s lack of political will to comprehensively fulfill the final peace accord. This weak approach has resulted in significant delays in achieving the accord’s goals of comprehensive rural reform, political participation, substitution of illicit crops, and dismantling of organized crime.
To enable the full implementation of the final peace accord, the organizations recommend:
You can read the original, Spanish statement here.
The English text is below:
The organizations and platforms signed would like to express our gratitude to the United Nations, Secretary-General António Guterres, countries belonging to the Security Council, and the Verification Mission on Colombia for supporting the Final Peace Accord for the Termination of the Conflict and the Construction of a Stable and Lasting Peace, signed November 2016, and for verifying its implementation, especially points 3.2 and 3.4 which concern the End of the Armed Conflict.
We recognize that the disarmament of the FARC’s former guerilla and the more than 13 thousand people currently undergoing the reintegration process are important steps forward. However, three and a half years have passed since the start of the final accord’s implementation, and four months since the official declaration of the social emergency caused by the pandemic. We have observed with profound concern the national government’s lack of political will to implement the peace accord. We can support this claim with the testimonies of communities and national and international verification reports. We have confirmed that most ex-combatants do not have land to work on and significant delays in the relative points of Comprehensive Rural Reform (part 1), political participation (part 2), the dismantling of organized crime (part 3), the substitution of illicit crops (part 4) and the institutional conditions that guarantee the implementation and monitoring of the accord (part 6).
Militarized presence in the territories fails to secure the life and liberties of citizens and peace. In Colombia, since the signing of the final peace accord and up until July 15, 2020, 971 social leaders and 215 individuals undergoing the reintegration process have been assassinated in these militarized zones. In other zones with territorial perimeter controls, criminality and the power of various armed groups has increased.
We advocate for respecting and fully implementing the final peace accord signed by the Colombian State and the FARC; the adoption of effective measures that guarantee reintegration; the due functioning of the agreed instances in the agreement like the CSIVI, which monitor implementation and the security guarantees of individuals undergoing reintegration; and the National Security Guarantees Commission, for the full completion of the mandate concerning the dismantlement of groups and conduct that threaten the country’s social leaders.
With the purpose of completely fulfilling the final peace accord and recognizing the important monitoring task that the Verification Mission–created by the UN Security Council–has accomplished for Colombia, we solicit the renovation of the mandate and the explicit inclusion of:
1) Verifying the fulfillment of sanctions by the Peace Tribunal of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) for all parties, which is included in part 5.1.2, numeral 53 d) of the final accord. The sites where sanctions will be implemented, in addition to the security and vigilance plan that guarantees the lives and physical integrity of the sanctioned and the victims of these territories, needs to be verified.
2) Monitoring the implementation of the differentiated gender dimension of the final peace accord, which is a recognized achievement, but also one that requires additional human and financial resources. It needs continuous precision and verification processes in its implementation with regard to commitments to women and ethnic peoples.
3) Supporting and possibly verifying Resolution 2532 of July 1, 2020 of the UN Security Council, and to invite the Colombian government and all who still find themselves armed to welcome the cease fire as an imperative, ethical need that will secure the signed peace process and provide humanitarian relief to rural communities violently targeted by multiple groups. The final peace accord established its centrality in the victims. Therefore, creating an enabling environment for peace is fundamental to providing a suitable response to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and advancing in the achievement of a complete peace.
Colombia has a social movement shaped by people that have contributed to the construction of peace. We have immense gratitude for the international community, because we have unitedly advocated for negotiated ends to armed conflict, the adoption of mechanisms for judicial placement of various armed groups, and an impetus for humanitarian initiatives as forms of resolving our conflicts and reconstructing a democratic society in a socially and environmentally conscious state of law.
September 4, 2020
Publicado por Verdad Abierta el 9 de agosto de 2020.
An analysis of the security forces’ inability to protect human rights defenders and conflict victims from renewed violence.
August 9, 2020
Publicado por El Espectador Colombia 2020 el 7 de agosto de 2020.
A tribute to the Truth Commissioner’s life and work, upon her death from COVID-19.
August 7, 2020
Publicado por la Comisión de la Verdad el 8 de agosto de 2020.
Leaders pay tribute to the memory of the Truth Commissioner who passed away on August 7.
August 7, 2020
Publicado por la Comisión de la Verdad el 6 de agosto de 2020.
The conflict’s impact on land rights in the Caribbean region, especially on Afro-descendant populations.
August 6, 2020
Publicado por un grupo de congresistas colombianos el 4 de agosto de 2020.
A data-filled report on the current status of implementation of the FARC peace accord, compiled by a group of pro-peace members of Colombia’s Congress. (link at juanitaenelcongreso.com)
August 4, 2020
Publicado por Semana el 2 de agosto de 2020.
Relatives are searching for 25,000 disappeared people at burial sites around the country.
August 2, 2020
Publicado por La Silla Vacía el 31 de agosto de 2020.
El Cármen de Bolívar is a municipality in the Montes de María region that suffered massive displacement and notorious paramilitary massacres in the early 2000s. The new mayor, Carlos Torres Cohen, opposes land restitution.
August 1, 2020
Publicado por El Espectador Colombia 2020 el 1 de agosto de 2020.
Gladys Vargas forgives paramilitary leader “El Iguano” for the murder of her son.
August 1, 2020
Publicado por La Silla Vacía el 31 de julio de 2020.
About the Truth Commission’s often difficult relations with Colombia’s business sector, military, and political right.
July 31, 2020
Publicado por la Comisión de la Verdad el 31 de julio de 2020.
A message to the armed forces from the Truth Commission’s president following the military’s delivery of documents to the Commission.
July 31, 2020
Publicado por la Comisión de la Verdad el 31 de julio de 2020.
A discussion of the conflict’s impact on Afro-descendant families in Colombia.
July 31, 2020
Publicado por la Comisión de la Verdad el 30 de julio de 2020.
A discussion of how the armed conflict has affected Afro-descendant communities in Colombia’s eastern plains.
July 30, 2020
Publicado por la Comisión de la Verdad el 30 de julio de 2020.
The Army delivers reports about the conflict to the Truth Commission.
July 30, 2020
Publicado por la Comisión de la Verdad el 29 de julio de 2020.
A discussion of the Colombian government’s security crackdown during the 1978-1982 government of President Julio César Turbay.
July 29, 2020
Publicado por Semana el 28 de julio de 2020.
A former guerrilla recounts the FARC’s history of recruiting minors.
July 28, 2020
Publicado por Semana el 26 de julio de 2020.
The transitional justice system has moved forward on its investigation of one of the worst massacres in the history of the conflict, the 2000 paramilitary attack on the people of El Salado, Bolivar.
July 26, 2020
Publicado por la Comisión de la Verdad el 25 de julio de 2020.
A discussion of how the armed conflict was lived in the Sumapaz region south of Bogotá.
July 25, 2020
Publicado por la Comisión de la Verdad el 23 de julio de 2020.
A discussion with social leaders from Colombia’s Pacific coast region.
July 23, 2020