Public Prosecutor’s Office and Gender
How necessary is a gender perspective in the Public Prosecutor’s Office?
Read MoreWhat’s Next: Justice for Peace
The historic cease fire agreement brings to the fore the final agreement between the Government and the Farc.
Read MoreMeasuring What Matters: a Key Challenge in Human Rights and Business
Five years in, we still lack data and methods to measure how and whether States’ and business commitments to the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are actually improving conditions on the ground. It is time to focus on measuring what matters, and zeroing in on how affected communities have experienced the GPs.
A Code for Police Arbritariness
The National Police scandals have shown that the institution has serious problems of arbitrariness and corruption.
Read MoreColombia and Its Outrageous Paradox
It is commont o hear about the Colombian paradox of the coexistence of a stable democracy with endemic violence.
Read MoreA nation, half men and half women: feminists demand justice
“Colombia has the face of a man” were the words of Colombian feminists when they showed that despite being half of the population, women are virtually absent from political appointments. In 2002, the government approved the “Quota law” which requires that at least 30% of public office positions are held by women. In 2011, Law 1475 reinforced this measure by requiring political parties that at least 30% of participants in their electoral lists are women.
Read MoreWhat Type of Public Prosecutor?
Néstor Humberto Martínez’s response to the Supreme Court about how to confront intra-family violence raises worries about his lack of sensitivity regarding gendered violence.
Read MoreHow Much Does Antipathy Cost?
Last week I wrote an op-ed about the law to allow citizens in Bogotá to avoid the alternate-day travel system for a fee. Few times have I received so many messages in favor and against what I said.
Read MoreOrlando: Equality and Violence
In the years I have been writing this column, I have never received such vicious comments as when I talk about the rights of the LGBTI population: when the homophobia of his school extinguished Sergio Urrego’s life, or when same-sex couples stopped being second-class citizens and were able to marry in civil unions or marriage.
Read MoreThe New Police Code’s Mistakes
This bill currently under review in Congress does not seem to prevent actions against peaceful coexistence, but does legalize the stigmatization of some populations.
Read MoreIn Search of a United, Yet Institutionalized Left
Ivan Cepeda’s proposal of creating a broad alliance with a presidential candidate and a roster of congressional candidates is the Left´s best bet, not only for it’s future, but for the country.
Read MoreLand Reform in Colombia: One step Forward Two Steps Back
Land reform in Colombia, while politically sensitive, is necessary to stabilize the country and end a violent conflict that has plagued Colombians for more than half a century. Colombia’s internal fighting has deprived millions of their land and livelihood. Adopted in June 2011, Colombia’s Victims and Land Restitution Law, also known as Law 1448, is an important advance in providing restitution for those displaced by the conflict.
Read MoreEnvironmental Injustice and Social Movements
The Warsaw Summit failed. The sobs and the hunger strike of the representative of the Philippines were not enough. “It’s time to end this madness,” he told the stubborn leaders of the world, referring to global warming which exacerbated the effects of the Haiyan typhoon that destroyed his family.
Read MoreProgressive Winds Blow In from Administrative Law
Administrative Law judges and the justices of the State Council may be innovating their way of protecting the public interest and of promoting regulation.
Read MoreEquity and Hospital Infections
A recent State Council decision established that if a patient gets an infection in a hospital, the hospital has to compensate him or her unless the hospital can prove that the infection was acquired elsewhere.
Read MoreRemembering our Brothers and Sisters: November 20th, Transgender Day of Remembrance
The fact that 64% of transgender persons in Bogota suffer some sort of aggression because of their gender identity shows that we need to exchange our prejudices for respect and comprehension.
Read MoreOnline education and the Classroom Dictatorship
Why do professors insist on teaching the same course over and over? When did teaching became “lecturing”?
Read MoreThe Missing Persons of the Palace of Justice and the IACHR
It is contradictory for the Government to accept responsibility before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ICHR) for two of the disappearances at the Palace of Justice and for the torture of two of the detainees, but then try to minimize its responsibility with regard to the other nine missing persons or the execution of Clerk Urán, by saying that what happened was a merely a governmental failure, but not a disappearance or execution.
Read MoreMore Salt Rubbed in the Wounds of the Victims of the Palace of Justice
In the Palace of Justice hearing, the government representatives gave with one hand what they took with the other.
Read MoreThe Inspector’s General’s Crusade Against the Environment
Thanks to information sent by several readers, I see that my last column fell short in criticizing the pressure that the Inspetor General’s office asserts on public officers protecting the environment
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