88 results

The Road to Acknowledgment in Colombia

On June 21-23, Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction of Peace (JEP) held its first acknowledgment hearing on the taking hostages, serious deprivation of liberty, and other concurrent crimes (known as Case 01) in Bogotá. Seven former leaders of the guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (FARC-EP) acknowledged their command responsibility for the kidnapping crimes that were the FARC-EP’s policy from 1993 to 2012 in the presence of victims, JEP officials, civil society representatives, and members of the press. This hearing marks the first time ever FARC-EP leaders publicly acknowledged their role in such systemic crimes. A decisive step in the country’s restorative justice process, it would not have been possible without years of preparation.

08/24/22
Four people embrace each other.
In Focus

ICTJ Organizes U.S. Visit for Syrian Advocates for the Detained and Disappeared

As part of its ongoing efforts to support Syrian civil society organizations seeking to end enforced disappearances in Syria, ICTJ organized a visit to the United States for members of two prominent family associations: Families for Freedom and the Caesar Families Association. The trip, which was planned in coordination with longtime partner Dawlaty, comes at a time when Syrian civil society and victims’ groups have been intensifying their calls for an international mechanism to uncover the fate of those who have gone missing in Syria since the start of the uprising in March 2011.

07/13/22
In Focus

Civil Society-Led Truth-Seeking Initiatives: Expanding Opportunities for Acknowledgment and Redress

At a time when truth-seeking and reparations initiatives are taking hold across the United States, this report offers reflections from various civil society-led truth-seeking processes. Drawing on case studies from the United States, Colombia, Scotland, and West Papua, the report iden...

People gather around a plaque marking the Greenboro Massacre outside during an inaugural ceremony
Report

2021 Year in Review

In 2021, there were significant developments, some hopeful and some devastating, in the struggle for truth, accountability, and redress in countries around the world. ICTJ experts covered these events in commentaries and feature stories published on our website and in our newsletters. While 2022 is already underway and we at ICTJ are hard at work, we would like to pause a moment to take stock and reflect on the year that was.

01/25/22
In Focus

Five Years of Light and Shadow: Colombia’s Final Peace Agreement Marks a Milestone

When reflecting on peace agreements and their implementation, it is tempting to begin by saying that these processes are generally slow and complex. While that may be true in many contexts, it contributes little to the discussion about what has happened in Colombia since the government signed a final peace deal in November 2016 with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC-EP—the oldest and largest guerrilla group in the county—that ostensibly ended 50 years of war.

12/01/21

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Maria Camila Moreno Múnera

World Report

Accountability in Policing COVID-19: Lessons from the Field

The global COVID-19 pandemic forced many countries to impose emergency measures, such as curfews and community lockdowns, to stem the spread of the virus. To enforce these measures, some societies have given regular police forces increased power to enforce the measures, while others h...

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Anna Myriam Roccatello and Mohamed Suma

Briefing Paper

Story of Change: Ex-Combatants in Colombia Acknowledge Their Crimes 

Alonso Ojeda Awad and Medardo Correa joined Colombia’s notorious leftist guerrilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN) in their youth. After fighting with the group for several years, they and a handful of other ELN members demobilized voluntarily in the 1980’s. But it was not until 2019 that they were able to sit down with former members of paramilitary groups to discuss acknowledgment and responsibility for past crimes, reparation, and the importance of non-recurrence.

08/17/21

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María Margarita Rivera Escolar

In Focus

Repairing the Past: What the United States Can Learn from the Global Transitional Justice Movement

“No peace without justice” is a chant that filled the streets of the United States last year following the murder George Floyd by police in May 2020. This same chant has animated protest movements and social and political upheaval in many countries around the world. We at ICTJ know from our experience that these calls for justice are for something far more encompassing than criminal accountability alone.

07/15/21

by

Fernando Travesí

In Focus

Setting an Agenda for Sustainable Peace: Transitional Justice and Prevention in Colombia

This report examines the preventive impact of transitional justice mechanisms in Colombia before the 2016 peace agreement. It finds that these measures have contributed to prevention by strengthening institutional responses to rights violations, shaping the public agenda, developing a...

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María Cielo Linares

Report

Transitional Justice and Prevention: Summary Findings from Five Country Case Studies

This report summarizes the findings of an ICTJ research project on the contribution of transitional justice to prevention. Drawing from five country case studies, it contends that addressing the past can help to prevent the recurrence not only of human rights violations but also viole...

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Roger Duthie

A young person with back facing the viewer is wearing a T-shirt that reads “Colombia in Peace"
Report