The Colombian Transitional Process: Comparative Perspectives on Violence against Indigenous Women

Abstract

Colombia has a comprehensive system of truth, justice and reparation stemming from its history with the justice and peace process and its most recent peace agreement. Although indigenous women are the most affected before, during and after conflict, their participation is marginalized within this political context. This article discusses how Colombian transitional justice can be reconfigured when indigenous women's practices and knowledge travel 'from the margins' to the center. We seek to demonstrate how these practices legitimize gender and other types of violence in the name of tradition and also how indigenous women's experiences go beyond the gendered perspective of violence as a 'weapon of war.' Working within the context of the peace process, we gathered data through learning and teaching techniques with indigenous women in three indigenous contexts (Sierra, Pan-Amazon region and Choco ´). Our focus is on the interaction between local transitional justice practices and the violence against indigenous women, their resistance practices and the peacebuilding agendas used to implement transitional justice in Colombia.

The endurance of women’s mobilization during “patriarchal backlash”: a case from Colombia’s reconfiguring armed conflict

“…The murder of hundreds of social leaders, the increase of massive displacement and massacres, and the ongoing violent contestation for control of illegal economies since the signing of Colombia's official "peace" creates collateral damage; we know that women suffer differentially (Meertens and Stoller 2001;Meertens 2010;CNMH 2017) and intersectionally, that is, based on ethnicity, race, geography, sexuality, (dis)ability, etc. (see Acosta et al 2018) in these conflict spaces.…”

“…Importantly, the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, geography, and ability further influence the ways that individuals are targeted for violence (see Marciales Montenegro 2015;CNMH 2015;Acosta et al 2018). The Alianza is a diverse organization, and there is a longstanding legacy in Colombia that associates places traditionally defined as "black and Indian" -such as Putumayo -with "disorder, backwardness, and danger" (Appelbaum 2003).…”

To pay, heal, and repair Mother Earth in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta: Experiences of indigenous women’s reparation in the implementation of the Colombian Peace Accord

“…In the words of Digneris Izquiero, Cabilda (political authority) of Pueblo Bello, Pueblo Bello was the birthplace of the FARC political party in the 1980s and was also under the territorial control of the 40 and 39, two of the fiercest paramilitary groups in the region. Likewise, the militarization of high mountain counter-guerrilla battalions in the region and the violence against both the territory and Arhuaca women exacerbated intra-community and settler SV against women in the communities (Acosta et al, 2018). For the Ati Mamas (spiritual female authorities) and Digneris Izquierdo, the effects on the Arhuaco territory by legal and illegal armed actors have affected the vital order in such a way that the SV against Herminda in Pueblo Bello is interrelated with territorial violence and must be comprehensively repaired.…”

Intersectionality and Peace

“…The differential approach, in that sense, lays the foundation for multiple experiences and agencies to be recognized. At the same time, however, there have been critiques that despite the differential approach, Colombia's Peace Accord does not assume an intersectional perspective, as it recognizes experiences of, for instance, women and Indigenous peoples, but not explicitly those at the intersection of the two, Indigenous women (Acosta et al 2018).…”