2018: Hopes born from the Peace Agreement

In the year after the Peace Agreement was signed between Santo’s government and the (former)guerrilla of the FARC-EP, the institutions which were created within Point 5, “Agreement regarding Victims of the Conflict: Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition”[1], were formed and began their work. More specifically, these are: the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the Unite to Search for Missing Persons (UBPD) and the Commission for the Clarification of the Truth, Coexistence and Non Recurrence (CEV) began their work.

These three institutions, created in 2017 and 2018, constitute high hopes for the victims of the armed conflict and for human rights organisations, as they seek to uncover the truth behind victimising events such as the Operation Genesis, the massacre of San José de Apartadó, extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances, among others. It should be noted that the civilian population is the main victim in all of these events. In order that they can be heard, attended to and their rights restored, Point 5 of the Peace Agreement has as its main objective the aim to centre victims in the processes.

Specifically, the mission of the CEV is to construct and publish a report at the end of its mandate, in which evidence the patterns of violence which exist behind the armed conflict and the victimising events[2]. In order to do this, “house of truth” will be installed in different municipalities of the country, the commission will visit remote territories and communities, and will receive reports on various events realised by civil society organisations and communities. The aim of these activities is to analise what happened, to try to understand the causes, who is responsible and subsequently establish recommendations for non-repetition.

Many human rights organisations accompanied by PBI have come together to elaborate and present reports to these three institutions. One of these is Humanidad Vigente, a human rights organisation that PBI has accompanied since 2013. In this video, Erika Gómez, who forms part of Humanidad Vigente, explains the importance of the Commission for the Clarification of the Truth.