WHO WE ARE

Rodeemos el Diálogo (ReD), known as Embrace Dialogue in the United Kingdom (UK), is a transnational network of Colombians and friends of Colombia. Based in Colombia and the UK, we have held academic, cultural, and advocacy events so that people can learn about the progress of peace negotiations and implementation of the Peace Agreement.

Nearly a decade of experience working for peace in Colombia, has taught us many lessons about peacebuilding from civil society. We have developed approaches, concepts, principles and methodologies that allow us to generate dialogues that can educate, transform and empower. What we have learned in Colombia, we believe can contribute to building peaceful environments elsewhere.

Early Steps

ReD emerged in the United Kingdom in September 2012, when peace dialogues between the Santos government and the FARC-EP began. Our aim was to raise awareness about the importance of the negotiations, and of dialogue in general as the only constructive way of dealing with conflicts. We began to create spaces for dialogue to share information with Colombian civil society and analyse the evolution of the 2012-2016 negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP guerrillas. This rapidly expanded beyond the UK to fostering spaces for dialogue throughout Colombia.

ReD’s work has always gone further than opening spaces for dialogue and offering non-partisan support to civil society. In particular, we have proactively sought to build a culture of dialogue, a crucial aspect of peace-building. In October 2016, Colombians voted in a Plebiscite on the peace agreement reached by the negotiations with the FARC. In the run-up to the vote, we recognised the importance of Colombians being able to make an informed decision and used ‘peace pedagogy’ to discuss and raise awareness about the content of the Peace Agreement. When the No vote won by a narrow margin, ReD participated in the social mobilisation for peace that followed. Within a matter of weeks, there was a revised peace agreement that began to be implemented in Colombia from December 2016.

ReD Today

ReD continues to support peace-building efforts in Colombia by creating spaces for dialogue. We use dialogue to help Colombians cultivate a critical awareness of what is happening and develop a distinctive voice to support peace. Our work has four objectives:

1. Understand the developments in the implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement.
2. Provide support and experience in negotiations with the ELN guerrilla group.
3. Promote reconciliation in different sectors of society.
4. Promote a culture of political dialogue that enables discussion of different political positions and fosters respect for difference.