Shredded

Abstract

From 2012 to 2016, the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP guerilla group sought to end the region’s longest non-international armed conflict. Under the auspices of the international community, this process drew from a complex series of practices and knowledge often known as ‘transitional justice’. Indeed, international expertise — in law and other fields — was also actively mobilized by both parties, as well as civil society and the anti-peace opposition, to contest the meaning of these terms. On paper, the peace agreement adopted a cutting-edge and comprehensive system aimed at delivering truth, justice, reparation, and non-repetition (the SIVJRNR), including both judicial and extrajudicial mechanisms following international standards and best practices. Yet in practice, the situation became increasingly dire after the peace agreement was narrowly voted down in October 2016. Two years later, having entered government, the former populist opposition proudly announced its plan to shred the peace accord and the SIVJRNR (including its crown jewel: the Special Jurisdiction for Peace or JEP). In this context, this article seeks to identify and understand the strategies which might be adopted by transitional justice institutions to prevail against waves of populist misinformation and backlash. The Colombian experiment can offer important insights on how humanitarian actors can generate public narratives of reconciliation in our current dire times of mistrust.

Digital peacebuilding in post‐conflict Colombia – A conceptual framework

“…Ramírez‐Gutiérrez and Quiroga‐Villamarín conclude that JEP, like other judicial institutions, plays a crucial role in creating narratives about the conflict and the possibilities of reconciliation. Even in the so‐called post‐conflict context, the warring parties will attempt to use [mechanisms of mass and new media] to consecrate their vision of truth (Ramírez‐Gutiérrez & Quiroga‐Villamarín, 2022). Piccone also found that political disputes have hindered JEPs progress as real‐time, public perception of the trials increased attention and scrutiny on political officials, leading to disputes and decreased judicial effectiveness (Piccone, 2019).…”

Radio Silences: The ‘Kidnapped Voices’ and the Production of Political Memory in Colombia (1994–2018)

“…105 At this point, Hoyos and his allies realised that they could use the categories of international humanitarian law for their own far-right political agenda, which were quite different from the seemingly progressive and liberal aims of the 'humanitarian consciousness'. 106 If the new FARC peace process was one which was not only thoroughly 'juridified' 107 but also 'judicialised,' 108 then the far right stood much to gain if it managed to mobilise these concepts for its illiberal purposes. 109 It is important to note that 'impunity' is a legal category, and not merely of a moral nature.…”

“…114 As I have explained in more detail elsewhere, in the 2012 Havana processin contrast to the 2005 paramilitary demobilisation process -'compliance with international standards [on the rights of victims] took centre stage'. 115 For this reason, the Havana negotiators (with much advice from international experts) created an 'integrated system of Truth, Justice, Reparation, and Non-Repetition', of which the JEP was the crown jewel. This Special Jurisdiction was tasked with the implementation of a regime of alternative, non-prison-based punishments.…”