Special focus

Transitional Justice: The great Colombian challenge

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.

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

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 human rights violations, and have not been identified as among the most responsible. And making sure they also contribute […]

By Paola Molano-Ayala (for Justice Info)

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

Trial of Colonel Mejía before the JEP in Colombia.

Colombia’s first transitional justice adversarial trial opens

Lessons from the Chiquita Trial (2): The Battle of Experts

Chiquita trial in Florida - Photo: an employee of banana multinational Chiquita works in a factory in Colombia (Uruba).

Insights from the Chiquita trial (1): 25 years of struggle

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.

Colombian president speaks of peace but glorifies armed struggle

Will the Drummond case be referred to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP) in Colombia? Photo: Construction machinery at work in a coal mine.

The Drummond case, a corporate litmus test for Colombia’s transitional justice

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.

Colombia’s JEP unveils alternative sanctions but remains silent on punishment

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.

Sanctions in Colombia’s justice process: How to get it right

A senior jurist from the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) listens to a victim in Colombia.

The original internal sin of Colombia’s JEP

In Colombia, an Awá indigenous leader leads a ceremony prior to a hearing before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP)

Colombia's Awá Indians, closer to justice but plagued by violence

Alvaro Leyva, Colombia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, is enigmatically opposed to certain transitional justice mechanisms in Colombia.

Colombia: a minister's enigmatic attacks on transitional justice

Eduardo Andrés Celis, an investigator for Colombia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is under pressure and forced into exile.

Colombia: when seeking the truth leads to forced exile

Motoya faces JEP justice - General Mario Montoya reviews soldiers in Colombia

War in the time of General Montoya

The truth about a disinformation campaign against the transitional justice process in Colombia. Former military officials confess before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP).

Colombia: unburying of a political smear against transitional justice

Luis Fernando Almario accused by JEP in Colombia - Funeral of Diego Turbay (politician) over whom Almario is suspected of persecution.

Colombia: Special tribunal indicts first prominent politician

Environmental justice in Colombia - High mountain páramo ecosystems under threat (Cumbal, Nariño).

Colombia's transitional justice cannot agree on how to prosecute environmental crimes

Indigenous peoples have been victims of FARC violence in Colombia

Colombia: new FARC indictment puts spotlight on indigenous and Afro victims

A man (Domingo Navarro) speaks into a microphone during a hearing of the Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP) in Colombia.

How Colombia’s JEP earns the respect of sceptical victims

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.

Colombia: the truths that the former FARC are reluctant to own up to

The new president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, delivers a speech on a podium. In the background: the Colombian flag.

The Colombian president Gustavo Petro opens door to a new transitional justice system

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.

Colombia: new challenges for the military who don’t admit to their crimes

Father Francisco de Roux reads the report in Bogota.

The Truth Commission’s message to Colombia

Rodrigo Londoño, Julián Gallo and Pastor Alape at a hearing of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in Colombia.

Colombia: the day FARC leaders faced victims of kidnappings

Grave of a missing and unidentified person in Colombia (inscription:

In Colombia, the end of a mother’s 20-year quest for a missing daughter

Alejandro Valencia and Carlos Ospina speak about the truth in Colombia

Colombia: Tensions rise ahead of the Truth Commission’s report

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

Truth in Colombia: “Your sons were innocent people we murdered”

Colonel Rubén Darío Castro speaks to victims of

Colombia: The day 10 army officials accused of false positives faced their victims

Different figures (tens of thousands) of forced disappearances in Colombia. In the background, silhouette of an unknown face.

What’s behind the numbers of disappeared in the Colombian armed conflict?

Women hold a banner that reads in Spanish:

First rift between Colombia’s Peace tribunal and the victims

A hand emerging from the ground holds a ballot in the colors of the flag of Colombia

Colombia wagers on political participation as a form of redress

The commissioners of the Colombian Truth Commission are sworn in by Juan Manuel Santos

Can Colombia be a model for the post truth commission period?

Colombian army soldiers look at the bodies of dead FARC rebels

Colombia: 21 Army officials own up to war crimes and crimes against humanity

Iván Duque and Karim Khan pose with a document in hand. A painting of Simon Bolivar is displayed behind them.

The ICC backs Colombia’s transitional justice model

Rodrigo Granda surrounded by a crowd of people escorting him through Bogota airport in Colombia

Rodrigo Granda: the diplomatic storm that shook Colombia

Former FARC members walk down a road dressed in white and carrying white flags.

Colombia’s TRC gets an extension to jump over the elections

Conversation between Francisco de Roux and Alvaro Uribe in a garden

Colombia’s TRC sits down with five presidents, including critical Uribe

Eduardo Cifuentes: “This dialogue between victims and perpetrators is unprecedented”

A Colombian soldier stands near civilians in the street

Colombia: 25 Army officials charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity

Colombia: the day when president Santos asked for forgiveness

Why Colombia is a pioneer in restorative justice

4 former Colombian FARC rebel commanders during the 2015 peace talks in Cuba

Kidnappings in Colombia: FARC leaders acknowledge full responsibility

Patricia Tobón Yagarí: “A legacy of Colombia’s TRC will be the active participation of ethnic peoples”

Graphic extrajudicial executions patterns over time, in Colombia

Colombia: the ‘false positive’ number that sets off a political storm

A first in Colombia: eight FARCs charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity

How Colombia’s Truth Commission navigated a pandemic year

FARC revelations on three political murders: a test for Colombia

Colombians pressure FARC into admitting child soldiers

Colombia: The Hall of Never Again sends out distress signals

Colombia: Uribe vs transitional justice

Why Colombia’s TRC lacks business support

How Covid-19 can derail reparations in Colombia’s Amazon

The Colombian transitional justice’s paramilitary dilemma

Covid-19 pushes reparations further away in Colombia

FARC’s kidnappings: from “retention” to criminal confinement

Political tussle over truth and memory in Colombia

Will Colombia’s FARC be allowed to clear mines to repair their victims?

Is political populism a threat to transitional justice in Colombia?

Can 8,9 million victims have a say in Colombia’s transitional justice?

What penalties? Colombia’s justice challenge in 2020

The first FARC mayor’s dilemma for Colombia’s transitional justice

Colombia: The Shifting Sands of Repairing Harm

More time to redress Colombia’s victims. The question is how.

Three years on, Colombians still await FARC public remorse

Colombia: They were enemies, now they make laws together

Colombian transition gets confusing with a disarmed FARC and an armed one

Sexual violence, the new punching bag in the Colombian transition (Part 2)

Sexual violence, the new punching bag in the Colombian transition (Part 1)

In Colombia, transitional justice is caught up in politics

War, park rangers and the hopes of Colombia’s transitional justice

Reparative justice in Colombia: a role for armed non-state actors?

Peacebuilding among jurisdictions in Colombia

Colombia’s transitional justice: Mission impossible?

Mark Freeman: how you can negotiate justice and peace

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ALL OUR ARTICLES ABOUT COLOMBIA

Pending the publication of our next unpublished articles dedicated to this special focus about the colombian transitional justice, consult all of our publications dedicated to Colombia, since 2015.