Santos’ Politico-Judicial Reform
Last Sunday President Santos convened Congressional sessions and said that “balance of power reform” would be a priority.
Read MoreUribism, Peace and Impunity
Uribism has opposed itself to the peace process by invoking victims’ rights and the fight against impunity.
Read MoreMany Small Violations
The accumulation of small and repeated daily violations makes life in a free and democratic society seem much more like a life in a dictatorship. I will illustrate this claim with a few real-life examples that I have been witness to in the past couple days.
Read MoreHistorical Reparations: In International Legal Fantasy?
Recently, the international community has demonstrated interest in the legal and political debate regarding the viability of historical reparations and their implementation.
Read MoreA Year with Snowden
Edward Snowden ended the internet’s age of innocence a year ago when he revealed the NSA’s secret: it has access to everyone else’s secrets.
Read MoreLetter to a Friend That Doesn’t Believe in Taxes
There is an excess of tax benefits, farmland and certain capital gains are not adequately taxed, public functionaries steal part of taxes paid and there is a high level of tax evasion.
Read MoreTrapped by Politics
After seeing two magistrates discharged, the sentencing of a ex-minister and listening to the judges that made these decisions explain themselves on the radio– all in a matter of weeks– critics have accused the High Courts of allowing themselves to be trapped by politics. That is to say that the judiciary has become politicized, a negative development. However, what does it mean for the judiciary to be politicized? Is it actually harmful?
Read MoreCalculus or Statistics?
Should 10th and 11th grade students learn to do derivatives and integrals if they dislike it and will not use it again? Would it not be better for these students to instead redirect their efforts to gain basic knowledge of statistics, which in today’s world is seemingly necessary in order to be a competent adult?
Read MoreThe Inspector General in the Sights of the Council of State
In the past week many have discussed the Colombian Inpector General Alejandro Ordóñez Maldonado’s political fate.
Read MoreThe End of the Foolish Fatherland
All countries have recorded in their histories a great event that serves as the founding myth for their nation.
Read MoreEaster and Bicentennial
I THINK THIS YEAR’S EASTER is a good time to think of the Bicentenary of Independence.
Read MoreThe electoral organization in Colombia
One of the key elements to advance towards the consolidation of Colombian democracy is the existence of electoral authorities endowed with the sufficient capacity, transparency, and impartiality to ensure the legality of electoral processes. This document discusses the main weaknesses of the Colombian electoral authorities to review the legality of electoral processes, and presents some ideas for overcoming them.
Read MorePresidential election: for a national debate agenda
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION should not only be the selection of the ruler, but also a space for public deliberation of collective affairs since this strengthens democracy and makes possible a more just society.
Read MoreAvailable brain time
The best evidence of T.V.’s great power is that it is never forced to question what it does.
Read MoreThe Congress we deserve?
After the parliamentary elections, everybody enlists their bets for the presidential ones. But before starting the next race, it is worth pausing a second to think about the kind of Congress we will have from July 20 and what we can expect the next four years.
Read MoreBittersweet elections
I AGREE WITH THOSE WHO, on the one hand, rejoice for the triumph of the Green Party in the elections of last Sunday but, on the other hand, worry about the results of the PIN . In this op-ed I would like to add something to this bittersweet balance.
Read MoreTransitional justice from below and with a gender perspective
The document aims to contribute to the debate on how to face the atrocities committed in the context of armed conflict in Colombia. In order to do this, it presents a theoretical proposal by which it aspires to enrich the dominant approach in the field of transitional justice through: i) the inclusion of perspectives sensitive to the differential effects of violence in the lives of victims, including gender, and ii) a better articulation between the processes from above and the realities and local initiatives.
Read MoreReparation in the voice of Women from the Regions
The document is a joint construction that reflects the articulation of several organizations working directly with women victims of violence in the context of armed conflict in Colombia. In particular, it collects the work results carried out in the regions by: the Popular Women’s Organization (OFP), the Colombian Women’s Initiative Partnership for Peace (IMP), the Corporation Sisma Women, and Narrating for Living, as operator of the Network of Women in the Montes de María. Dejusticia made the drafting of the document from the inputs provided by these organizations.
Its aim is to contribute to the reparation debate in Colombia and, in particular, to emphasize the importance of designing, implementing, and evaluating public policy in the subject with a gender emphasis. This is, recognizing that in the armed conflict there have been forms of violence directed against women and the need to satisfy women’s rights.
Read MoreLand restitution to women victims of armed conflict
The document aims to contribute to the discussion on the implementation of the right to restitution for women victims of the Colombian armed conflict. To this end, the paper presents a diagnosis of the main difficulties in the Colombian context. Additionally it presents specific proposals that show the importance of incorporating into restitution public policy sensitive approaches to the various forms of discrimination that affect them and which may constitute real barriers to the satisfaction of law.
Read MoreThe centenary of the constitutional reform of 1910
THIS YEAR IS NOT ONLY the bicentennial of our independence but also the centennial of the 1910 constitutional reform, one of the most important, least studied and least remembered in our history.
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