this agreement was rejected on October 2nd in the referendum convened by the Government for its endorsement. The two negotiating parties readjusted several sections of the text in order to obtain a new agreement, which was signed on November 24th of the same year. Next, the “Congreso de la República” or “Congress of the Republic” endorsed the definitive agreement or the “Acuerdo Final para la Terminación del Conflicto y la Construcción de una Paz Estable y Duradera”.
In addition to ending the armed confrontation definitively, the Agreement aims to build a stable and lasting peace by initiating,
a transition phase that contributes to a greater integration of our territories, a greater social inclusion –especially for those who have lived outside the sphere of development and have suffered the conflict– and a strengthening of our democracy so that it may be deployed throughout the national territory and ensure that social conflicts are processed through institutional channels, with full guarantees for those who participate in politics. (Acuerdo Final para la Terminación del Conflicto y la Construcción de una Paz Estable y Duradera, 2016, p. 6).
The Peace Agreement is organized into six points on which the transformations, necessary to build peace in Colombia, are articulated. Point 1 (“Comprehensive Rural Reform”) is oriented towards the structural transformation of the countryside, favoring access and use of the land, improving conditions for the rural population and reducing poverty. The purpose of Point 2 (“Political participation: democratic openness for peacebuilding”) is to expand and strengthen democracy, opening spaces to new political actors and promoting citizen participation in decision making. Point 3 (“Ceasefire and bilateral and definitive abandonment of hostilities and weapons”) establishes the terms for the cease-fire and bilateral and definitive abandonment of hostilities, the abandonment of weapons by the FARC, the creation of the “Zonas Veredales Transitorias de Normalización” or “Transitional Normalization Zones” and the conditions for the reintegration of the demobilized guerrillas into society, all under the supervision of a monitoring and verification mechanism. Point 4 (“Solution to the problem of illicit drugs”) is dedicated to the fight against drug trafficking, as well as the promotion of the voluntary substitution of illicit crops and the transformation of the affected territories with a focus on rural development. In Point 5 (“Victims”), which is one of the central axes of the Agreement, the Integral System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Recurrence is established, which is composed of different judicial and extrajudicial mechanisms of transitional justice, including the “Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz” (JEP) or “Special Court for Peace”, the “Comisión de la Verdad” or “Truth Commission”, the “Unidad de Búsqueda de Desaparecidos” or “Missing Persons Search Unit”, as well as a set of comprehensive repair measures and guarantees of non-recurrence. Finally, Point 6 (“Implementation and verification mechanisms”) establishes various mechanisms for monitoring and verifying compliance with the Agreement in order to ensure its effective implementation.
The rights of the victims of the armed conflict
Victims of international crimes, or other serious human rights violations, play an increasingly central role in transitional justice processes, because without their recognition and participation, a peace that is real, stable and lasting can hardly be achieved. In the field of transitional justice, we have advanced from a model focused on crimes against human rights and International Humanitarian Law and their perpetrators, towards another based on the victims of these crimes and their rights. Thus, in the transitional justice processes, especially in recent stages, restorative approaches to justice –focused on the victim and their reparation– prevail over retributive approaches –focused on the offender and their punishment–.
In the international arena, the most widely accepted definition of victim is the one compiled in the basic principles and guidelines on the right to a remedy and reparation for victims of gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law, approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005. According to Paragraph 10:
victims are persons who have individually or collectively suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that constitute gross violations of international human rights law, or serious violations of international humanitarian law. Where appropriate, and in accordance with domestic law, the term “victim” also includes the immediate family or dependents of the direct victim and persons who have suffered harm in intervening to assist victims in distress or to prevent victimization. (ONU, doc. A/RES/60/147, 2005, para. 10).
This definition served as a reference for Law 1448 of 2011, known as the “Ley de Víctimas y Restitución de Tierras” or “Victims and Land Restitution Law”, establishing the concept of victim at the national level. However, with regards to the internal armed conflict, Article 3 of this law limits the recognition of a victim to events that occurred only after January 1st, 1985.
Different international standards have established the essential guarantees of those people that have suffered damages as a result of serious violations of their human rights or violations of International Humanitarian Law. These guarantees, known as victims’ rights, can essentially be broken down into three categories: truth, justice and reparation. The right to the truth implies the right to know the truth of what happened, which includes: who committed the acts, under what circumstances and for what reasons they were committed. The right to justice is the right for the State to investigate, prosecute and, if appropriate, punish those responsible for the acts in proportion to the damage caused. The right to reparation is the right of the victim to be fully compensated for the damage suffered. Reparation, which can be individual or collective, can be carried out in various ways, mainly through measures of restitution, compensation, rehabilitation or satisfaction. The establishment of guarantees of non-recurrence, which was originally conceived as a means of reparation, has been configured over time as an autonomous right to adopt the necessary measures, including structural or institutional transformations, to prevent the victimizing acts from reoccurring.
These basic rights of the victims have been recognized internally by the different States that make up the international community. In the Colombian case, not only have they been recognized and established both normatively and jurisprudentially, but they occupy a central place in the Peace Agreement. Indeed, it is in the contexts of transitional justice that the rights of the victims acquire their full meaning, since these rights are precisely the pillars on which the peace process is built.
The post-conflict challenges
Far from being the final objective of the Peace Agreement, the disarmament and demobilization of the FARC are merely the starting point in the process that is beginning to develop. To achieve national reconciliation, allowing for a peaceful coexistence in Colombia, great efforts are required on behalf of all the belligerents of the conflict and the rest of society. To ensure that the conflict does not recur, structural reforms will be necessary to address the problems that caused and exacerbated it. However, there will be many difficulties that will have to be faced during this process.
Achievements and difficulties in the implementation of the Peace Agreement
One of the greatest achievements with the implementation of the Agreement has been the abandonment of weapons by the FARC. Disarmament occurred in a particularly short period of time and in a number that exceeded expectations. Next, came the extrication of the former guerrillas and their process of reincorporation into civilian life. This reincorporation was especially successful in the political sphere, since the “Fuerza Revolucionaria Alternativa del Común” (FARC) political party was formed, which will be represented in Congress. Today the FARC has ceased to exist as a guerrilla organization, the number of victims has fallen dramatically and the indicators of violence are, globally, the lowest in recent decades.
Significant progress has also been made in mine clearance tasks, as interventions have
