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As 2020 draws to a close, so too does the Truth Commission’s second year in operation. This snapshot provides a brief overview of the commission’s work to date and points to some of the challenges that might arise in its upcoming final year of work. A more detailed look ahead to 2021 will be tackled in the next snapshot.
Read our monthly snapshots related to the process and latest news about Truth Commission, Transitional Justice and Reincorporation. Don’t miss our publications and analysis in our Dialogue Magazine.
On 21 October 2020, around two thousand FARC ex-combatants from across the country joined a mass demonstration to meet with the national government and demand both the implementation of security measures to safeguard life and the fulfilment of the peace agreement. The starting point of the demonstration, named Peregrinación por la Vida y por la Paz (Pilgrimage for Life and Peace), was the municipality of Mesetas in the department of Meta – the resting place of former FARC combatant Jesús Monroy Ayala, who was killed on 16 October 2020.
Understanding competition over land and natural resources as underpinning the Colombian conflict is a fundamental step both for recognising environmental justice as a component of the peace-building process, and for taking action to guarantee non-repetition. The JEP is taking an innovative racial, ethnic and territorial approach to the inclusion of the environment in the transitional justice process. This approach acknowledges the importance of the relationship established by Afro-Colombian, Indigenous and campesinos communities with their territories, and investigates the degradation of local natural resources as a violation of the communities’ collective rights. Three of the currently open macro-cases investigate the damage caused to the environment in the context of the armed conflict: macro-cases 002, 004 and 005. Moreover the JEP has established a “Commission on Territory and the Environment” to investigate the links between the conflict and environmental degradation and to promote a reflection on a territorial and environmental approach within the various bodies of the JEP.
“In times of war, the truth is often shamed, obscured and kept at a distance”; Daniel Maestre, a traditional doctor from the Kankuamo community shared these words during a meeting with indigenous groups of the Caribbean. This was one of several held over the past few months, by the Truth Commission, on the subject of #LaVerdadIndigena (‘the Indigenous Truth’) across the Caribbean, Andean, Pacific, Amazonian and Orinoquian regions of Colombia. These events aimed to allow indigenous communities to share their experiences of conflict with Colombian society, culminating in the sixth Encuentro por la Verdad (Truth Encounter) on 23 October: “Indigenous Communities in Danger of Physical and Cultural Extinction: Their Dignity, Resistance and Contributions to Peace”. This snapshot provides an insight into the search for the Indigenous Truth and how providing a platform for Colombians to hear about their experiences both as victims and as defenders of peace has marked a crucial step in the recognition of abuses and the guarantee of non-repetition.
¿Podría la elección de Joe Biden en los Estados Unidos allanar el camino hacia unos diálogos de paz en Colombia entre el gobierno de Iván Duque y la guerrilla del ELN? Gwen Burnyeat y Andrei Gómez-Suárez analizan las percepciones del ELN sobre los obstáculos a la paz, y sugieren que la nueva administración de Biden ofrece una ventana de oportunidad para futuras negociaciones.
Could the election of Joe Biden in the US pave the way to peace talks in Colombia between the government and the ELN guerrilla group? Gwen Burnyeat and Andrei Gómez-Suárez analyse the ELN’s perceptions of the obstacles to peace, and suggest that the incoming Biden administration offers a window of opportunity for future negotiations.
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