PrintColombia
Featured Resources & Tools
Bringing together the experiences and insights of more than thirty experienced and emerging authors, human rights activists, and peace practitioners from Colombia and abroad, Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War documents and analyzes the vast array of peace initiatives that have emerged in Colombia in recent years.
This USIPeace Briefing discusses the condition of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, their hostages and the potential direction of this situation. The briefing stresses insights that key figures in the issue raised in recent visits to Washington, DC.
Latest from USIP on Colombia
- November 12, 2009 | Event
Representatives of the Partners for Democratic Change's new Center in Colombia, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Due Process of Law Foundation will host a roundtable discussion about these mechanisms for democratizing justice at the community level. Discussion with invited experts will explore other experiences of community dispute resolution, as well as the challenges community justice mechanisms face and how they have been addressed.
- July 13, 2009 | Event
Following President Álvaro Uribe’s visit to Washington in late June and his meeting with President Obama, Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) will offer his views on how the U.S. should approach Colombia and prospects for peace in the country’s decades-long internal conflict.
- July 1, 2009 | Resource
Bringing together the experiences and insights of more than thirty experienced and emerging authors, human rights activists, and peace practitioners from Colombia and abroad, Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War documents and analyzes the vast array of peace initiatives that have emerged in Colombia in recent years.
Despite a decline in homicides, massacres, and kidnappings, and an apparent weakening of Colombia’s illegal armed groups last year, the prolonged and chronic internal armed conflict continues apace. Coca production is up and drugtrafficking continues to fund all sides of the conflict and to foster new ties between illegal armed groups. Thousands of demobilized paramilitaries have joined up with drugtraffickers and continue to threaten social leaders and communities. The fighting has escalated in many regions of the country, aggravating an already severe humanitarian crisis and sending waves of refugees across Colombia’s borders.
The UNHCR estimates that some 140,000 Colombians in Ecuador may be in need of international protection. In 2008, according to statistics from CODHES (Consultoria para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento), the violence forcibly displaced more than 380,000 individuals, bringing the number of displaced to 4.6 million people for the period from 1985-2008 and marking a return to the high levels of displacement that occurred in 2002. Between 1997 and February 2009, the Colombian government officially registered 2.9 million of these displaced, who have abandoned approximately 5.5 million hectares of agricultural and ranching lands.
In the absence of national initiatives for a political solution to the conflict, civil society peace initiatives continue to emerge. Intellectuals and other social leaders, led by Senator Piedad Cordoba, have initiated an “epistolary dialogue” with the FARC that has secured the release of some hostages. Victims’ groups are seeking protection as they seek to establish accountability for wrong-doing and civil society leaders continue to push for a negotiated solution.
Featured Centers, Initiatives, and Projects
Loading...
The United States Institute of Peace's work in Colombia supports peacebuilding projects that:
• Enhance mechanisms for conflict prevention and resolution;
• Strengthen civil society organizations' capacities to engage in nonviolent approaches to conflict prevention, management, and resolution;
• Enhance collective efforts to secure truth, justice, reparations, and social reconstruction; and
• Promote respect for human rights and empower groups victimized by the war, discrimination, and social and economic exclusion.