The LSE Latin America and Caribbean Centre (LACC), Children Change Colombia, Rodeemos el Diálogo (ReD) and Winchester’s Centre of Religion, Reconciliation and Peace invite you to a roundtable discussion with Paola Forero Acosta, Colombian Human Rights expert who wrote the children and young people chapter of the Colombian Truth Commission Report, and Karen Arteaga Garzón, director of Rodeemos el Diálogo Colombia, an organisation that supported the Colombian Truth Commission’s pedagogy team and Generation V+ (the youth initiative seeking to protect the legacy of the Truth Commission). 

Six months after the investiture of Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, our speakers will discuss the findings and recommendations related to children and youth, as well as the role of civil society in the Commission’s work and the implementation of some recommendations.

On the 28th of June 2022, the Colombian Truth Commission released its final report. The report comprises 10 volumes in which the Commission documents the impact that half a century of armed conflict has had in different sectors of Colombian society. It also unveils the pattern of violence and the factors which contributed to repetition of violence. Over three years the Commission collected nearly 30.000 testimonies within and outside Colombia. One of the volumes condenses the findings and over 60 recommendations for overcoming the conflict. Another volume presents the innovative efforts to document exile in 24 countries around the world and another documents gender-based violence and the role of patriarchy in the continuation of the conflict.

Although all the volumes include testimonies from children and youth, there is a specific volume dedicated to them: No es un mal menor. Niñas, niños y adolescentes en el conflicto armado, “It is not a minor lesser? evil, children and youth in the armed conflict.” This volume is based on almost 3.000 testimonies and has important findings for Colombia and the world to understand the impact of the armed conflict on children and youth, and it offers key recommendations for how children and youth can play a significant role in peace and reconciliation.