Transitional Justice: The great Colombian challenge

Dossier spécial 76 publications
No country in the world has conceived and decided to implement such comprehensive and multifaceted justice process as Colombia. This transitional justice was born out of the historic peace agreements, at the end of 2016, between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Trials, truth-seeking, reparations, land and other reforms, the rights of indigenous peoples, the search for the disappeared, the reintegration of ex-combatants, reconciliation initiatives, remembrance work, and so on: in a polarized political context, Justice Info reports and analyzes how the country is implementing an extremely ambitious project, each component of which is linked to the others. An experiment that will inevitably be scrutinized and studied all over the world.
© Amalia Satizabal para Justice Info
Transitional Justice: The great Colombian challenge
Colombia, victim of the USAID funding freeze due to the policies of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Photo: Musk, dressed all in black, proudly displays a T-shirt bearing the words ‘DOGE’ (acronym for the US Department of Government Efficiency).
Can USAID’s funding freeze put Colombia’s peace process at risk?
14 March 2025 by Braeden Garrett + Tomasina Pearman + Clara Whitney
Colombia’s fragile peace process faces one of its greatest challenges since the 2016 Peace Accord between the Government of Colombia and the FARC guerrilla: for years, USAID has been the single largest provider of humanitarian fun [...]
Drawings of Azriel Bibliowicz and Ricardo Silva Romero, two Colombian writers. Writing about crimes you can’t forget
14 January 2025 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano (our correspondant in Colombia)
Two Colombian writers put language to horrors that could finally see justice this year in their country. The main characters of their novels are close relatives of victims – those for whom the crime continues long after it was com [...]
JEP and Transitional Justice in Colombia. Photo: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla fighters prepare to be demobilized following the signing of the peace agreement. Colombia: Going back to the original balance of justice
25 November 2024 by Paola Molano-Ayala (for Justice Info)
There is a crucial aspect of Colombia’s transitional justice model that is worrying: the current inability of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) to offer legal security to those who participated in the conflict, including in [...]
Trial for the recruitment of child soldiers in Colombia. Photo: Judge Lily Rueda of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) announces the indictment of former FARC leaders. FARC leadership accused of war crimes over child soldiers
21 November 2024 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano (our correspondent in Colombia)
The phenomenon of child soldiers was historically a less visible crime to Colombians than kidnapping. It is now at the centre of the second indictment by Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) against the leadership of fo [...]
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Trial of Colonel Mejía before the JEP in Colombia.
26 September 2024 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano (our correspondent in Valledupar, Colombia)
Colombia’s first transitional justice adversarial trial opens A highly symbolic trial opened last week in a small courtroom of a torrid city in north-eastern Colombia. Colonel Hernán Mejía Gutiérrez, an emblematic figure of the “false positives” scandal to most Colombians, stayed silent whil [...]
Chiquita trial - Photo: a promotional stand featuring only Chiquita bananas. At the very top, the brand's mascot. At the front of the booth, a large button and a sign reading “Push to start the show”.
13 September 2024 by Tatiana Devia + Daniel Marin Lopez
Lessons from the Chiquita Trial (2): The Battle of Experts Analysing the trial of Chiquita, a multinational banana company that was ordered by a U.S. court to pay 38 million dollars in compensation for victims of the paramilitary in Colombia, lawyers Tatiana Devia and Daniel Marín López h [...]
Chiquita trial in Florida - Photo: an employee of banana multinational Chiquita works in a factory in Colombia (Uruba).
12 September 2024 by Tatiana Devia + Daniel Marin Lopez
Insights from the Chiquita trial (1): 25 years of struggle A Florida jury delivered a ruling in the Chiquita trial, holding the multinational banana company liable for 38 million dollars in compensation for victims of the paramilitary in Colombia. After more than 25 years of struggle and [...]
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, between war and peace. Photo: Petro delivers a speech on stage while 2 people hold a flag of the former M-19 armed group.
18 July 2024 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano (our correspondent in Colombia)
Colombian president speaks of peace but glorifies armed struggle Flag, hat or sword: a former member of the M-19 guerilla, Colombian President Gustavo Petro is publicly glorifying symbols of his ex-armed group. An attitude decried by victims and criticized by many Colombians, as his government [...]
Will the Drummond case be referred to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP) in Colombia? Photo: Construction machinery at work in a coal mine.
2 July 2024 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano (our correspondent in Colombia)
The Drummond case, a corporate litmus test for Colombia’s transitional justice Colombian transitional justice’s range of action over civilians allegedly involved in serious crimes during the internal conflict is quite legally limited. But one case could strike out: the case against two top executives of Drum [...]
Major Gustavo Soto Bracamonte and Colonel Gabriel de Jesús Rincón, both indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, plant a black sage sapling at the launch of the environmental restorative pilot project near Bogotá, Colombia.
16 April 2024 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano (our correspondent in Colombia)
Colombia’s JEP unveils alternative sanctions but remains silent on punishment After six years of work and three since its pioneering indictments, Colombia's special transitional justice tribunal – known as JEP – is finally getting closer to imposing its first sanctions. With the launch of an environmental r [...]
In Colombia, how will the JEP apply its commitments on sanctions? Photo: FARC officials at the signing of part of the peace agreement in December 2015 in Cuba.
11 March 2024 by Juanita Goebertus + Juan Pappier
Sanctions in Colombia’s justice process: How to get it right The way Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace will impose sanctions on individuals it has held responsible for serious crimes is crucial to the whole transitional justice model. And it is yet to be clarified by the tribunal. H [...]
A senior jurist from the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) listens to a victim in Colombia.
1 March 2024 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano (our correspondent in Colombia)
The original internal sin of Colombia’s JEP An opaque recruitment process at the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) has brought unease and criticism. It came in stark contrast to the exemplary way judges of the transitional justice criminal court were selected. It also hi [...]
In Colombia, an Awá indigenous leader leads a ceremony prior to a hearing before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP)
16 January 2024 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano (our correspondent in Colombia)
Colombia's Awá Indians, closer to justice but plagued by violence In 2023 the Special Jurisdiction for Peace issued groundbreaking findings on the crimes committed against Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples in Colombia, especially for the Awá. It has notably included the war crimes of destru [...]
Alvaro Leyva, Colombia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, is enigmatically opposed to certain transitional justice mechanisms in Colombia.
22 December 2023 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano (our correspondent in Colombia)
Colombia: a minister's enigmatic attacks on transitional justice Why has Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva insisted before the United Nations that Colombia's transitional justice model is headed for failure - while, at the same time, he promotes the special tribunal's acceptance of former paramilit [...]
Eduardo Andrés Celis, an investigator for Colombia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is under pressure and forced into exile.
6 November 2023 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano (our correspondent in Colombia)
Colombia: when seeking the truth leads to forced exile In June 2022, Colombia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission unveiled its ten-volume final report and closed its doors two months later. For one of its investigators, Eduardo Andrés Celis, who agreed to speak to Justice Info, that [...]
Motoya faces JEP justice - General Mario Montoya reviews soldiers in Colombia
7 September 2023 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
War in the time of General Montoya Colombia’s former Army commander Mario Montoya was indicted on August 30 for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The retired general is accused by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace of adopting “a de facto policy that prioriti [...]
The truth about a disinformation campaign against the transitional justice process in Colombia. Former military officials confess before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP).
18 July 2023 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: unburying of a political smear against transitional justice On 27 June, the resounding confessions of four soldiers involved in the killing and cover-up of the death of a 23-year-old farmer disproved a vast campaign of disinformation disseminated by the party of former president Álvaro Uri [...]
Luis Fernando Almario accused by JEP in Colombia - Funeral of Diego Turbay (politician) over whom Almario is suspected of persecution.
22 June 2023 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: Special tribunal indicts first prominent politician The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) presented a new indictment on 29 May. It is the first against a civilian politician, the first for persecution as a crime against humanity, and the first from the troubled prosecution secti [...]
Environmental justice in Colombia - High mountain páramo ecosystems under threat (Cumbal, Nariño).
9 May 2023 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia's transitional justice cannot agree on how to prosecute environmental crimes In its latest indictment, Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) insisted that "transitional justice is also environmental justice” and deemed ecosystem damage as a war crime. Three magistrates wrote partial dissenting op [...]
Indigenous peoples have been victims of FARC violence in Colombia
27 March 2023 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: new FARC indictment puts spotlight on indigenous and Afro victims Two weeks ago, Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace indicted 10 former regional commanders of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity. This second indictment against [...]
A man (Domingo Navarro) speaks into a microphone during a hearing of the Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP) in Colombia.
12 January 2023 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
How Colombia’s JEP earns the respect of sceptical victims In a country where many, especially in the political arena, still tend to see Colombian society as divided in two almost irreconcilable and immovable halves, the very personal processes - away from the public spotlight - of victim [...]
An installation in memory of the victims of the La Gabarra massacre in Colombia: a colorful spiral made of candles, flowers and sheets of paper on which the names of the victims have been written.
12 December 2022 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: the truths that the former FARC are reluctant to own up to Many victims in Colombia feel that the FARC are still reluctant to fully own up to many of their atrocities. Especially when it comes to crimes committed against leftist politicians and peasants. The 1986 murder of former Congress [...]
The new president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, delivers a speech on a podium. In the background: the Colombian flag.
8 November 2022 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
The Colombian president Gustavo Petro opens door to a new transitional justice system Right after taking office as president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro has announced his intention to try and negotiate peace with the country’s remaining armed groups and major organized crime cartels. But it is unclear what kind of t [...]
President Iván Duque stands in front of Truth Commission chairman father Francisco de Roux. They exchange a document (defence sector's truth report) under the gaze of a military man.
1 September 2022 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: new challenges for the military who don’t admit to their crimes After the last four months major achievements in Colombia in dealing with the past crimes of the military, the new left-wing government now has to deal with the Armed Forces' and defence sector's reluctance to see extrajudici [...]
Father Francisco de Roux reads the report in Bogota.
27 July 2022 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
The Truth Commission’s message to Colombia On 28 June, Colombia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission unveiled its final report on that country’s 60-year armed conflict. Its central message, gathered in a nearly 900-page chapter on findings and recommendations, focuses les [...]
Rodrigo Londoño, Julián Gallo and Pastor Alape at a hearing of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in Colombia.
1 July 2022 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: the day FARC leaders faced victims of kidnappings The day of reckoning has finally arrived, between June 21 and 23 in Colombia, when seven former commanders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) faced their victims in the kidnapping of thousands of people. Followin [...]
Grave of a missing and unidentified person in Colombia (inscription:
7 June 2022 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
In Colombia, the end of a mother’s 20-year quest for a missing daughter Arnobia Gutiérrez’s quest is about to finally come to an end as soon as she receives, in a solemn ceremony, the remains of her daughter Natalia who had been missing for 20 years after she was recruited as a child by the ELN guerri [...]
Alejandro Valencia and Carlos Ospina speak about the truth in Colombia
25 May 2022 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: Tensions rise ahead of the Truth Commission’s report Two political crises in two weeks have shaken Colombia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, while its final report is now due to be published just over a month: first, the resignation of retired major and commissioner Carlos Osp [...]
During an event of the Truth Commission of Colombia, three ex-Colombian officers, standing on a platform, meet a woman (she is shaking hands with one of them). In the background, a large screen shows the words
23 May 2022 by Thierry Cruvellier
Truth in Colombia: “Your sons were innocent people we murdered” This was the last major public hearing before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Colombia. On May 10 in Soacha, three retired soldiers listened to 13 women tell them about the unbearable and permanent pain of losing their [...]
Colonel Rubén Darío Castro speaks to victims of
2 May 2022 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: The day 10 army officials accused of false positives faced their victims It was an unprecedented scene in Colombia. On April 27 and 28, in the heart of the mountainous region of Catatumbo, 10 members of the national army admitted to the murder of 120 civilians in front of the victims’ families. A major [...]
Different figures (tens of thousands) of forced disappearances in Colombia. In the background, silhouette of an unknown face.
19 April 2022 by Adriana Rudling
What’s behind the numbers of disappeared in the Colombian armed conflict? There are conflicting numbers on forced disappearance in Colombia. Over the years, different registers have appeared that have varying scope and purpose. This recently caused alarm with the UN Committee on Forced Disappearance. Re [...]
Women hold a banner that reads in Spanish:
14 March 2022 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
First rift between Colombia’s Peace tribunal and the victims Colombia’s special peace tribunal is about to open three new – and perhaps final – cases. However, its decision to focus on armed actors and veer from its previous approach centred on symbolic crimes, is bringing a flurry of criti [...]
A hand emerging from the ground holds a ballot in the colors of the flag of Colombia
8 February 2022 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia wagers on political participation as a form of redress With the general and presidential election campaign in full swing in Colombia, victims of its 52-year-long armed conflict are playing a more visible role than ever. Three political parties decimated by violence were resurrected by [...]
The commissioners of the Colombian Truth Commission are sworn in by Juan Manuel Santos
24 January 2022 by Adriana Rudling
Can Colombia be a model for the post truth commission period? In Colombia, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a main historic component of the 2016 Peace Agreement and is due to close its doors in June 2022. The author considers its potential for long-term impact, in light of a study [...]
Colombian army soldiers look at the bodies of dead FARC rebels
4 January 2022 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: 21 Army officials own up to war crimes and crimes against humanity This is another major result for Colombia’s transitional justice: at the end of 2021, 21 former Army officials acknowledged their responsibility over the murder of civilians who were then passed off as rebels killed in combat. In [...]
Iván Duque and Karim Khan pose with a document in hand. A painting of Simon Bolivar is displayed behind them.
9 November 2021 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
The ICC backs Colombia’s transitional justice model On October 28, Prosecutor Karim Khan decided to close the International Criminal Court’s preliminary examination on Colombia, opened 17 years ago. His decision came with a strong endorsement of the country’s innovative transitiona [...]
Rodrigo Granda surrounded by a crowd of people escorting him through Bogota airport in Colombia
25 October 2021 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Rodrigo Granda: the diplomatic storm that shook Colombia The detention in Mexico of Rodrigo Granda, a former head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and signatory of Colombia’s peace agreement, sparked a diplomatic storm. Paraguay accuses him of murder, while Colombia is on t [...]
Former FARC members walk down a road dressed in white and carrying white flags.
14 October 2021 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia’s TRC gets an extension to jump over the elections Just as the clock was winding down for Colombia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, its three-year mandate has been extended by an additional nine months. This will allow the Commission to avoid becoming a punching bag during n [...]
Conversation between Francisco de Roux and Alvaro Uribe in a garden
3 September 2021 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia’s TRC sits down with five presidents, including critical Uribe Over the past two weeks, Colombia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission achieved a rare feat – to sit down with all five of the country’s living presidents, with a conversation with Andrés Pastrana this Tuesday and a seemingly imp [...]
Eduardo Cifuentes
27 July 2021 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Eduardo Cifuentes: “This dialogue between victims and perpetrators is unprecedented” JUSTICE INFO IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS Eduardo Cifuentes President of Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) Eduardo Cifuentes is the president of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, the judicial arm of the transitional justice [...]
A Colombian soldier stands near civilians in the street
20 July 2021 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: 25 Army officials charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity Over the past two weeks, Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace announced its second batch of major decisions, accusing 25 former members of the Colombian Army of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including several high-r [...]
Juan Manuel Santos
24 June 2021 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: the day when president Santos asked for forgiveness On Friday June 11th, former President and Nobel Peace prize laureate Juan Manuel Santos appeared before Colombia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission to ask for forgiveness for the extrajudicial executions that happened during hi [...]
Kankuamo Indians testify before the JEP
20 May 2021 by Mary de la Libertad Diaz Marquez
Why Colombia is a pioneer in restorative justice In an innovative journey of transitional justice already well underway, Colombia is putting restorative justice to a test. It’s still a question to what extent this approach is embraced so that not only victims and perpetrators bu [...]
4 former Colombian FARC rebel commanders during the 2015 peace talks in Cuba
7 May 2021 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Kidnappings in Colombia: FARC leaders acknowledge full responsibility In what has been the clearest result so far of Colombia’s transitional justice, last Friday, seven top leaders of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces acknowledged their responsibility over thousands of kidnappings and asked for [...]
Patricia Tobon Yagari
2 April 2021 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Patricia Tobón Yagarí: “A legacy of Colombia’s TRC will be the active participation of ethnic peoples” JUSTICEINFO.NET IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS Patricia Tobón Yagarí Commissioner in Colombia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Patricia Tobón Yagarí is one of the 11 commissioners serving on Colombia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commissio [...]
Graphic extrajudicial executions patterns over time, in Colombia
9 March 2021 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: the ‘false positive’ number that sets off a political storm Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) has published key findings, including an incomplete and stunning number of civilians murdered by the military and passed off as rebels killed in combat – the infamous “false positive [...]
Julieta Lemaitre (JEP -
2 February 2021 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
A first in Colombia: eight FARCs charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity Last Thursday, Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace announced its first major decision, accusing eight top leaders of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia of war crimes and crimes against humanity, in what has be [...]
7 January 2021 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
How Colombia’s Truth Commission navigated a pandemic year Colombia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission had to reinvent itself in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Having had to scrap its public hearings, it has rolled out an impressive array of live-streamed conversations, podcasts, T [...]
5 November 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
FARC revelations on three political murders: a test for Colombia The former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia dropped a bombshell, last month, claiming responsibility over the murders of three high-profile public officials in the 1990s. As missing truths begin emerging, they’re testing whe [...]
16 October 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombians pressure FARC into admitting child soldiers Last month, Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace – known as JEP – has decided to allow public preliminary hearings. This has helped former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to be more forthcoming about the [...]
14 September 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: The Hall of Never Again sends out distress signals The Hall of Never Again is one of Colombia’s best known memorials. It was conceived by victims of the civil war in Granada, a town that has become an icon of reconstruction and resilience. But the recent damage caused by a water l [...]
25 August 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: Uribe vs transitional justice Former president Alvaro Uribe, Colombia’s most powerful politician and a staunch opponent to the 2016 peace deal, was placed under house early this month for alleged witness tampering. He is retaliating by attacking two crucial ju [...]
31 July 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Why Colombia’s TRC lacks business support Two major oil companies presented, on July 30, 2020, a report to Colombia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, documenting more than 3,600 attacks on oil infrastructures during the armed conflict. A rare exception, while since i [...]
13 July 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
How Covid-19 can derail reparations in Colombia’s Amazon The Covid-19 pandemic is devastating the entire Amazon basin, just as one of Colombia’s most ambitious redress programs for indigenous victims in this remote rainforest region is poised to kick off. A program that is the result of [...]
4 June 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
The Colombian transitional justice’s paramilitary dilemma Colombia’s transitional justice has a seemingly clear mission, to prosecute former members of the FARC and of the military who committed war crimes during the 52-year-long conflict. But another party keeps popping up every now and [...]
11 May 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Covid-19 pushes reparations further away in Colombia The Covid-19 pandemic has severely disrupted the work of Colombia's transitional justice since the country went into mandatory lockdown at the end of March. While the truth commission and the judicial system are on pause, the vict [...]
9 April 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
FARC’s kidnappings: from “retention” to criminal confinement The legal case on kidnappings by FARC will be a major test for Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace – the judicial arm of the country’s transitional justice system. Two thousands victims have been accredited in the case. But [...]
19 March 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Political tussle over truth and memory in Colombia Truth is purportedly the first casualty of war. It is also the object of constant wrangling in Colombia’s transition. While many Colombians are looking towards the Truth Commission to shed light on 52 years of conflict, President [...]
2 March 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Will Colombia’s FARC be allowed to clear mines to repair their victims? Colombian victims want to see the former guerrillas clearing landmines. The government less so. Delays, bureaucratic hurdles and the government’s lack of urgency are preventing former combatants to do the work. As a result, one of [...]
11 February 2020 by Rachel Rushby
Is political populism a threat to transitional justice in Colombia? Three years after the signing of the Final Peace Agreement between FARC-EP guerrilla group and the Colombian government, could politically motivated criticism of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace derail transitional justice? Rach [...]
4 February 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Can 8,9 million victims have a say in Colombia’s transitional justice? The way Kankuamo Indians got together two weeks ago, in northern Colombia, to review videos in which military described extra-judicial executions gives an insight into the challenges of victim participation ahead of the first Spec [...]
9 January 2020 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
What penalties? Colombia’s justice challenge in 2020 Three years after the peace accords were signed, Colombians still ponder what sanctions will be applied to ex-FARC and members of Armed Forces. Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace has yet to determine the precise guidelines [...]
8 November 2019 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
The first FARC mayor’s dilemma for Colombia’s transitional justice On October 27, former guerrilla commander Guillermo Torres became the first ex-FARC member to win a local election after the 2016 peace agreement in Colombia. His case is a litmus test for the way sanctions may apply in the transi [...]
25 October 2019 by Janine Natalya Clark
Colombia: The Shifting Sands of Repairing Harm How to ‘repair’ the multiple harms done to victims of the armed conflict in an environment where ongoing harms are occurring? This is one of the many challenges of transitional justice in Colombia. When a social and political mili [...]
24 October 2019 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
More time to redress Colombia’s victims. The question is how. In the midst of Colombia’s divisive transition, a rare political consensus emerged over the past two weeks, to extend the landmark 2011 bill that recognized victims of the armed conflict and set out specific measures to redress th [...]
1 October 2019 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Three years on, Colombians still await FARC public remorse Exactly three years after the plebiscite that showed how divided Colombians are on the landmark peace deal that led to the disarming of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), millions of Colombians are still awa [...]
24 September 2019 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia: They were enemies, now they make laws together They both met as newly elected Congressmen and forged an improbable partnership. Ómar Restrepo and César Eugenio Martínez are on the opposite sides of Colombia’s political scene. One is from the former leftist guerrilla of the FAR [...]
9 September 2019 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombian transition gets confusing with a disarmed FARC and an armed one A week ago, a minority group of leaders of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) surprised Colombians by announcing that they would no longer honour the peace agreement signed in 2016. A significant blow to a pe [...]
2 September 2019 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Sexual violence, the new punching bag in the Colombian transition (Part 2) Victims of sexual violence have different expectations in Colombia, and the strategies of the transitional justice system do not always satisfy them. How to address these crimes before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace? Are ordin [...]
30 August 2019 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Sexual violence, the new punching bag in the Colombian transition (Part 1) The number of registered victims of sexual violence in relation to the armed conflict in Colombia has jumped fivefold in the past 5 years. Given the former FARC’s increasingly documented record of sexual abuse, the discussion has [...]
30 July 2019 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
In Colombia, transitional justice is caught up in politics One year after he came into office, Colombia’s president Iván Duque has failed to directly modify a central institution of the transitional justice process, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, known as JEP. But the legal offensive [...]
27 May 2019 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
War, park rangers and the hopes of Colombia’s transitional justice What if Colombia’s Special Peace Jurisdiction and Truth Commission investigate the environmental damages caused by conflict, from attacks on pipelines to the murder of park rangers? Environmental lawyers think that there is a uniq [...]
17 December 2018 by Olivia Herman
Reparative justice in Colombia: a role for armed non-state actors? The field of transitional justice has expanded its horizons beyond the early transitions from authoritarianism to democracy, to include transitions from non-international conflicts to peace. In such contexts, there is a need to ad [...]
12 December 2018 by Diana Carrillo-González
Peacebuilding among jurisdictions in Colombia The Special Jurisdiction for Peace and indigenous peoples have the opportunity to create intercultural methodologies towards peacebuilding. To that end, three principles must be introduced: ethnic legal assistance, intercultural/i [...]
23 November 2018 by Mariana Casij Peña
Colombia’s transitional justice: Mission impossible? Two years ago, on November 24, 2016, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) signed a revised peace agreement that brought the armed conflict to an end. Both parties agreed on what is prob [...]
30 October 2018 by Thierry Cruvellier
Mark Freeman: how you can negotiate justice and peace JUSTICEINFO.NET IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS Mark Freeman Executive Director of the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) From June 2014 to December 2015, Mark Freeman was one of two independent experts hired by the Colombian governm [...]