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Colombia suffers from ongoing armed conflict involving guerillas, paramilitaries, crime networks, and official security forces. ICTJ began working in Colombia in 2006 to support justice initiatives following ratification of the 2005 Justice and Peace Law (JPL), which opened modest possibilities for accountability for paramilitary crimes.

ICTJ’s work in Colombia focuses on three key areas: support to criminal prosecutions and strategic litigation; reparations programs; and the acknowledgement of atrocity through truth-telling and memorialization. In each of these areas ICTJ conducts monitoring and research, provides technical advice and training, and develops outreach and communication campaigns.

Background

Colombia has continued to endure the most intractable armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere. Confrontations and violence directed at civilians have caused massive displacement and loss of life, weakened the rule of law, and created a culture of impunity. Complex links between drug trafficking, political crimes, and organized crime pose particular challenges for those seeking to strengthen respect for human rights and accountability for abuses.

Demobilization and the Justice and Peace Law

In 2002 truth, reparations and accountability took on a heightened importance in public and private debate when the new administration of President Alvaro Uribe began negotiating the demobilization of the coalition of paramilitary groups operating as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Between 2003 and 2006, over 30,000 individuals went through the demobilization process.

These negotiations eventually resulted in the Justice and Peace Law (JPL or Law 975) of 2005, which was designed to offer a legal exit strategy for paramilitaries and to take tentative steps towards addressing the human rights abuses perpetrated by former paramilitaries.

Ratified in 2005, the JPL offers former paramilitaries reduced prison sentences in exchange for full, truthful confessions regarding their participation in crimes committed by the paramilitary organization, the handing over of all assets to a reparation fund for victims, and a commitment to end all illegal activity. Some confessions have led to an increased focus on justice and accountability in Colombia. The information provided has enabled the location and identification of disappeared persons and, in some cases, the exposure of strong links between paramilitary leaders and some state officials.

Despite positive contributions, however, the demobilization scheme exhibits serious deficiencies and design flaws. Many who demobilized have rearmed and violence and insecurity in Colombia remains ongoing.

Challenges and Criticisms

The JPL has faced repeated legal challenges. Immediately after ratification, the Constitutional Court reviewed and strengthened components of the law, increasing the criteria paramilitaries needed to meet to obtain reduced prison sentences and inserting language ensuring the rights of victims to participate in all stages of the criminal process. The law was weakened in 2009, however, when the Supreme Court of Justice held it permissible to indict former paramilitaries for only a select number of crimes allegedly committed, rather than all of them. The ruling limited the law’s efficacy in exposing the full extent of paramilitary crimes, and the underlying web of criminal relationships that enabled them.

Civil society organizations have severely criticized the implementation of the JPL, demanding that prosecutors grant victims and their representatives effective access to the process. Additionally, organizations have demanded that transitional justice measures be extended to include victims of state crimes. Critics have also pointed out that reduced prison sentences can mean that former paramilitaries who committed mass atrocities serve a token sentence, often shorter than sentences for robbery or other lesser crimes.

Other Initiatives

The situation in Colombia has been under preliminary examination by the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2006. The critical question for the ICC is whether judicial investigations within Colombia are conducted in keeping with Colombia’s Rome Statute obligations.

For several years, the Colombian human rights community has embarked on multiple initiatives outside the scope of the Justice and Peace Law. Several hundred civil society and victim’s organizations have initiated truth-telling and community-based reparations programs, and dynamic legal action has produced robust case law that promotes and protects the rights of victims. Recent legal innovations include decisions related to reparations and victim/witnesses protection programs, a national system to protect the rights of internally displaced persons,, and a recent call by Colombia’s Supreme Court to create a national truth commission.

More information on the JPL can be found in the Q&A of the July 2010 Transitions Newsletter (PDF).

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ICTJ Activity

Since October 2006, ICTJ has been working in Colombia to support the implementation of transitional justice measures, including the Justice and Peace Law. Currently, ICTJ concentrates on strengthening national mechanisms for the protection of victims’ rights to truth, justice and reparations. Some of the main activities are as follows:

Prosecution Initiatives: Victims' Rights and System Crimes

• Providing technical advice based on international and comparative experiences to national authorities responsible for system crime prosecution and trial management, including the Supreme Court of Justice, the Special Justice and Peace Tribunals, the Office of the Procurator General and the Office of Public Defenders.
• Monitoring and advocacy pressing for policy changes in the prosecution of system crimes and the protection of victims’ rights. Advocacy focuses have included problems associated with the extradition of Colombian paramilitaries to the United States on drug-trafficking charges and proposed changes to the JPL legal framework and implementation.
• Involvement in strategic litigation through intervention as amicus curiae in several landmark cases before the Constitutional Court, including challenges to the JPL, the witness and victim protection program, and due process and victims’ rights.
• Analyzing and reporting on Colombia’s initiatives for prosecuting system crimes in light of international obligations, particularly under the Rome Statute of the ICC and the principle of complementarity.
• Providing NGO partners in Colombia and abroad with technical tools and advice to enhance their representation of victims’ rights and interests.

Reparations Programs

• Conducting applied research on public policies related to official reparations programs. ICTJ has produced thematic working papers on various dimensions of the right to obtain reparations, including: health, education as a mechanism for reparation, protection of property rights and restitution and collective reparations.
• Monitoring and commenting the implementation of official programs, including a reparations program with the National Department of Planning.
• Advising local governments in complementary initiatives for victims’ reparation in Barrancabermeja and Medellín.

 
Acknowledgement and Truth-telling Initiatives

• Collaborating with the National Commission of Reparation and Reconciliation’s Historical Memory Working Group.
• Supporting unofficial truth-seeking initiatives, including community-based projects in Antioquia, Valle, and the Colombian Atlantic Coast.
• Providing technical support to the truth commission established to investigate the facts of the November 1985 Palace of Justice siege, which resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people, including 25 Supreme Court justices.

 
Communications and Outreach

• Producing and disseminating transitional justice expertise for a Spanish-speaking audience through targeted publications.
• Circulating regional information. ICTJ produces a daily survey of news stories and media coverage relevant for transitional justice in the Americas; publishes a newsletter for the Americas, focusing primarily on transitional justice issues in Colombia; and maintains a Spanish-language version of the ICTJ website.
• Publishing communications, research, and technical analysis in English in order to reach a broader international audience of experts and observers. The Bogotá office has produced a variety of materials in English (see links below).

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(Updated August 2010)