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OAS Report Highlights Participation of More than 280,000 victims in Colombia’s Law of Justice and Peace

The Secretary General of the Organization of the American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, today presented to the Permanent Council the fourteenth report on the Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia (MAPP/OAS) that highlights, among other things, the social scope of the Law of Justice and Peace, the difficulties in reintegrating demobilized combatants and the resurgence of violence in some areas of the country.

In his presentation, the Secretary General reiterated the Organization’s commitment and support to the peace process pursued by the Colombian government and emphasized the need to join efforts to consolidate its achievements. Among these he highlighted the disappearance of so-called “Self-Defense Forces,” though he acknowledged that “a small but important part of them have resurfaced as criminal gangs with explicit ties to drug trafficking and other illegal activities”.

The document presented to the Permanent Council makes special reference to the implementation of the Law of Justice and Peace, approved by the Colombian Congress in 2005, by which hundreds of demobilized combatants who belonged to paramilitary and guerrilla groups are being brought to justice. In this context, the Secretary General indicated that “the participation of more than 280,000 victims in this process is proof of its historic legitimacy, and it must be properly understood for its unprecedented character and its magnitude.”

The report also indicates that “the implementation of the pilot projects of collective redress has been slow, isolated, and lacking the necessary dissemination.” In this sense, Insulza noted that “private sector participation, if not properly articulated, could contribute to generate further confusion within the very communities and could endanger these processes.”

The head of the OAS also commented on some of the concerns reflected in the report with respect to the situations of violence still present in various areas and creating difficulties in the provision of services to demobilized fighters. “The Mission has observed that demobilized combatants continue to be the objects of recruitment, harassment, threats, displacements and even killings at the hands of the armed illegal groups that still exist,” he explained.

Secretary General Insulza finished his presentation by noting that “in the current stage of the peace process, it is essential to prevent the return of situations that could disrupt it, secure the successes and make the necessary adjustments, to thus allow communities and especially the victims to effectively enjoy all their rights.” Furthermore, he made a call on “all sectors that participate directly or indirectly in the process to offer their support and improve the institutional presence of the State to secure the road towards peace.”

For his part, the Permanent Representative of Colombia to the OAS, Ambassador Luis Alfonso Hoyos, recognized that the support of the OAS Mission “has been fundamental to the recovery of trust in Colombia” and explained that the best way to understand what such support has meant is through concrete facts and verifiable data “that show the great progress, the qualitative leaps and the challenges we have as we move forward.”

Ambassador Hoyos named some of the progress his country has achieved in recent years, among them: a reduction in violence and kidnapping, the recovery of trust and international investment and the rise in the presence of security forces in rural and urban areas of the country.

The Mission to Support the Colombian Peace Process of the OAS was created in 2004 with the objective of assisting the peace processes, the verification and monitoring of agreements, and the support of communities victims of violence. Through the MAPP, the OAS has supported local initiatives in conflict zones with specific measures, actions and projects aimed at reducing violence, cementing trust, achieving reconciliation and strengthening democracy. Since the creation of the MAPP/OAS, the General Secretariat presents a quarterly report to the Permanent Council of the Organization.

The full text of the report is available here.

More information on the MAPP/OAS is available here.

Reference: E-141/10