“Yes, it’s about race”
Those were the words uttered by the mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings, during the vigil held after five police officers were shot to death by an armed man during a peaceful protest of the Black Lives Matter movement, which was organized after two African American men were killed by police. Well, let’s talk about race.
Read MoreEndorsement, abstention and blank ballot
A critique to the so-called “plebiscite for peace” is that it replaced the “participation threshold” (UP) for an “approval threshold” (UA), which deprives abstention from having legal effects. The latter would be anti-democratic and would violate the right to “active abstention,” which the Constitutional Court has recognized in citizen participation mechanisms such as referendums, plebiscites or consultations.
Read MoreBlank ballot and endorsement
José Manuel Acevedo proposed, in his most recent column, that the Constitutional Court signal that in the “plebiscite for peace” (which, in reality, is closer to a people’s consultation) voters are allowed to cast blank ballots.
Read MoreFive years of land restitution
While public attention has been focused on recent announcements about the peace process, the fact that the Victims’ Law just reached five years of existence has gone almost unnoticed.
Read MoreMulticulturalism, for what?
However, before responding, I had a second thought, and images of indigenous peoples mobilizing to vindicate their right to prior consultation, and the happiness of an Afro-descendant community when it received its collective land title.
Read MoreTwo steps against corruption at the Office of the Prosecutor
Sixteen ministers and Vice President Vargas Lleras have already made public their assets and income. The whole Cabinet accepted an invitation by President Santos’s and by a Transparency for Colombia campaign to disclose the income of public officials.
Read MoreThe Conundrum of Political Humor
The crime against comedian Jaime Garzón has been solved. This was what the prosecutor managed to say recently. Maybe it’s my own ignorance, but I don’t think any light has been shed on the death of political humor in Colombia
Read MoreBody Politics: Governing Women’s Bodies
Women’s bodies are a battleground for the meanings vested in them, and for the social and cultural resources expected to be obtained by intervening on them. Two modes of intervention on the body show this, and pose particular risks for girls: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and plastic surgery.
Read MoreAfter conflict, forgiveness will not be the most important: lessons from Sierra Leone
I attended a two-week international workshop on post-conflict politics that brought together over 150 people from war-torn countries. Most of them came from places with civil wars like Colombia, while others were from countries involved in large external wars with serious internal repercussions. There were people from Liberia, Mali, Sri Lanka, India, Egypt, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Mexico, Yemen, and Nepal. All their stories are striking, interesting, and share similarities with the Colombian case.
Read MoreA Constitutional Peace and a Constitution During Peace
Both a plebiscite and an act of the legislature are part of a normative system, and they must be interpreted together, not in a disjointed way.
Read MoreKirchner’s “nac&pop” project
Cristina Kirchner’s government illustrates the risks that populism has for democracy without offering any of its advantage in exchange.
Read MoreSearching for the Leader of the Year
2013 is ending. It is time to recap the year´s events. Media organizations are making their lists of the best and worst of the year in opinion pieces and articles.
Read MoreWho is the Drug Pirate?
The president of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Raymond Yans, accused Uruguay of piracy for approving home-grown marihuana and its legal, but highly regulated, commercial distribution.
Read MoreClimate Injustice and Social Movements: Latin America’s Chance
César Rodríguez Garavito writes about the failure of the Climate Change World Summit in Warsaw and on the upcoming meeting in Lima in 2014, that may be the last chance to save the Planet from catastrophe.
Read MorePetro’s International Option
Since the day mayor Gustavo Petro´s legal team learned of the Inspector General’s Office’s decision to remove him from office and ban him from holding public office for 15 years, the team began to look North. They set their eyes on Washington, where the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is located.
Read MoreCoalition Report UN Resolution 1325 on Peace and Democracy in Colombia
Since 2011, Coalition 1325 has drafted a report on UN Security Council´s Resolution 1325 monitoring the implementation of the Resolution in Colombia. This year, given the peace dialogues between the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP, this report is especially important because Resolution 1325 calls upon signatory states to include women in peace processes and post conflict scenarios, and to guarantee the rights of the women victims of armed conflict.
Read MoreEnvironmental Democracy
While the Inspector General ignores the popular vote in Bogotá, in the rest of the country local democracy is flourishing. Last Sunday was Tauremena’s turn (in Casanare), where they voted against petroleum projects that put the municipalities water sources at risk.
Read MoreSeparate and Unequal: Education and Social Class in Colombia
Elementary and high school students live in two separate and unequal worlds, because the quality of the education they receive is very different. What can we do to close this gap?
Read MoreWith Three Articles
It is possible to limit the greater institutional risks of the Inspector General’s Office and the worst personal excesses of Inspector General Ordóñez without changing the Constitution; we just need a short law with three articles.
Read MoreIntimacy in the Digital Age
Don’t let them persuade you that your privacy is worth less on the Internet. The general rule is that everyone has a right to intimacy, an abstract area reserved by the law for oneself, ones friends and family.
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