What to Do with Human Rights?
To read this post in English click here.
I would like see a human rights discourse with the participation of more people, more ways of knowing, and that is more local.
Read MoreRegarding the Constituent Assembly and Posada-Carbó
A recent op-ed by Posada Carbó (El Tiempo, Feb. 18th) critiques my argument about the possibility of a constituent assembly in the post-conflict. His critique, as is his style, is careful and relevant and broaches an important debate, which deserves to be discussed.
Read MoreHume’s Farmers
In his Treatise about Human Nature (1739), David Hume narrates the following episode between two farmers:
Read MoreSolution Journalism
Now that all the heads have rolled— the Police Chief, the Viceminister, and the journalist that published the video— I fear that what I commented in my previous op-ed is happening.
Read MoreThe Reality of Early Pregnancies in Colombia
Childhood and adolescent pregnancy can be reduced with more education and less ignorance.
Read MoreThe Truth about the Stork
Sex was at the center of the news last week.
Read MoreThe Domesday Book
Almost a thousand years ago, the then King of England William I took a significant decision, one of which we Colombians can learn from, if we want to have a more solid state and a more efficient and equitable taxation system.
Read MoreCamilo Torres’ Week
Camilo Torres was a priest, poitical leader, and university professor.
Read MoreAfter Resigning
We are used to seeing resignations daily. First the Ombudsman, then the Interior Viceminister, now the Director of the National Police.
Read MorePeñalosa Is Painted There
Peñalosa is recuperating public space, isolating informal street vendors, sex workers, and homeless people so that the rest of the city doesn’t see them.
Read MoreThe crisis of justice in Colombia
Some months ago, when the discussion about the failed “justice reform” initiated, the constitutionalist Rodrigo Uprimny said: “The Colombian justice is ambiguous and paradoxical. Neither it is excellent nor it is collapsed. It has things that work well, but others are terrible”
Read MoreMilitary criminal justice jurisdiction: the reform’s threats
Until now the military is the winner of a imaginary legal war, which generates risks for civil society and the aftermath of the conflict. The attempts to guarantee independence and impartiality of military justice are insufficient to address these risks.
Read MoreJudicial independence, democratic or corporate?
There is no democracy without judicial independence but this independence must be democratic and not corporate.
Read MoreThe rebellion of the trees
The revolt that has Turkey on edge shows, once more, that governments do wrong by underestimating environmental protests.
Read MoreFormalised or married?
Since June 20th notaries and judges must “solemnize and formalize the link” between same-sex couples that come to them with this purpose, given that this is how it was adjured by the ruling C-577 of 2011 of the Constitutional Court. But, should they marry these couples or should they join them with a different contract than matrimony?
Read MoreThe risks of a constitutional assembly
For an eventual peace agreement to be lasting and legitimate, it is vital that citizens ratify it at the ballot box. As my colleague Rodrigo Uprimny showed in his Op-Eds, the challenge is finding the appropriate mechanism: for it to be participatory and democratic, but at the same time resistant to political forces aimed at sabotaging the peace process or taking advantage of it in order to dismantle the 1991 Constitution.
Read MoreHow to ratify peace?
The democratic ratification of any peace agreement is imperative, just as I explained throughout my previous Op-Ed. But, which should be the mechanism? Is a law enough? Or is it necessary to take into account other devices with a greater participatory component, such as a referendum?
Read MoreThe Ecuadorian candidate for the IACH: The other path of the weakening of the Comision
The control of the public function is a disturbing task, but necessary in each democracy. Many governments that have disagreed with decisions of entities of control have found two ways of eliminating said control. One way is opposing publicly the decisions or even altering the competences of the entity issuing them. Another way is taking over the entity, guaranteeing that those integrating it decide in favor of its interests, or that they are so incompetent that the entity or tribunal loses any relevance.
Read MoreCongress: memory pills
The pest of oblivion in congress is increasingly critical. Now it forgets that is approved less than a year, a law about a topic and it is going through Congress once again. And to top it all, it legislates with a different and contradictory content.
Read MoreParking the mining locomotive
Given that the mining locomotive was left without the rules that allowed setting up its rails, there is no other alternative than to “put the house in order,” as the Minister of Environment told this daily. This means extending the moratorium of mining title deeds that the Government pertinently declared some months ago.
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