Our news in Colombia, clear and analytic

Our news in Colombia, clear and analytic

Since the peace agreements in 2016, a transitional justice process has been established in Colombia. Its ambition is to re-establish the truth about the violence that resulted from an armed conflict pitting the government against the Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for more than 50 years. The aim is also to work on remembrance of this violence, encourage forgiveness, offer reparations to the victims (often in the form of financial compensation) and prevent recurrence. Most of the victims of this conflict are civilians. The JEP (Special Jurisdiction for Peace), the main body for transitional justice in Colombia, prosecutes and punishes criminals who refuse to submit to justice and obstruct the reconciliation process. These criminals are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including rapes and kidnappings that have traumatised the country. At the heart of this highly emotive legal story is the scandal of the “false positives” (civilians murdered by the military and passed off as rebels killed in combat), which is generating a great deal of debate and forcing the soldiers responsible to admit their guilt, as part of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Justice Info offers intensive, independent coverage of these justice initiatives in Colombia.

6 min 18

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 victims will be even more severely affected by further delays in the long-awaited reparations.

By Andrés Bermúdez Liévano