The Dividing Line between Opportunism and Good Business
Alejandro Reyes revived the land restitution debate: how to determine which land was voluntarily sold, despite having taken place in areas influenced by the armed conflict.
Read MoreArgentina and Colombia Go after Economic Actors in Contexts of Violence
In recent weeks there have been two interesting development in the movement to demand responsibility from economic actors that support serious human rights violations in contexts of conflict and repression, such as the case of Chiquita Brands’ support to Colombian paramilitaries, or Argentinean companies that financed and supported the military regime.
My Person of the Year: Fabiola Lalinde
My person of the year is Fabiola Lalinde.
Read MoreThe State of Peace
Following the hangover of the holidays, and for some, the celebration of coming into office, today they wake up with tasks at hand those who for the next four years will lead the destinies of the country at the regional level.
Read MoreNew Year’s Present for Large Estate Owners and Investors
The economic model for rural development proposed by the Government and approved this month by Congress favors the concentration of land use by large investors.
Read MoreStraw Man of Impunity?
Human Rights Watch’s critiques of the Peace Special Jurisdiction (JEP) agreed upon by the FARC and the Goverment are important and should be debated. However, it is an unacceptable exaggeration to conclude that the agreement is a pact of impunity, as its spokesperson José Miguel Vivanco said.
Read MoreTransitional Justice and Public Forces
This week, with President Santos’ announcement about the characteristics of the special jurisdiction that would apply to civilians and members of the armed forces charged with crimes related to the armed conflict, it completed the puzzle of justice for peace.
Read MoreThe Constitutional Court: Between the Sacred and the Profane
The ban on sharing property in the first two years of a free union seems to be the result of religious influence on the Constitutional Court.
Read MoreThe Agreement about Victims: Peace with Justice
Despite the foreseeable criticism it has received, the agreement about justice and victims that was reached this week in Habana is a gigantic step in the path to achieving peace in Colombia. Why?
Read MoreHuman Rights in Times of Austerity, Who Should Answer?
The adjustment policies that resulted from the Troika negotiations have meant a heavy weight that, as in Aeschylus’s tragedy, have fallen relentlessly and ruthlessly on the human rights of the Greek people.
Read MoreThe Law and Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy
The State Council’s decision to nullify Decree 444 of 2006 isn’t surprising. It also doesn’t change the current regulation on access to the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (VIP) in the three cases where it has been recognized by the Constitutional Court.
Read MoreTake the water of the fish
On the attempts of reform of the Interamerican Comission of Human Rights
Read MoreThe Hilton, the Tayrona and the abuses of hotels
In a historical decision against the Hilton Hotel of Cartagena, the Council of State put hotels that take over the beaches back in their place. It also reminded other who wish to do the same – like the Hotel Las Américas in Cartagena os Sis Senses and Los CIruelos in the Tayrona National Park – that the public space is for the use of everyone.
Read MoreEqualitarian adoption and surrogate
The discussion about adoption by same sex couples or equalitarian adoption is different to the debate on surrogate, this is, the possibility for a couple to pay, though not necessary, to a women to use her womb for the procreation of their baby.
Read MoreThe land that the Incora plundered
The plundering of lands was caused not only by ilegal actors, but also by the State, according the first decision on restitution in the Cesar.
Read MoreKenia and Colombia: so close, so far
The distance of the equatorial paralel that takes us from Colombia to Kenia is so big, that it would seem that the two countries have nothing to do with each other. But, we have not only borrowed drums from them, skin color and tubercules. Nor is it only their emerging economy from wich other countries in Africa depend on, nor the conflict that is generated with the extraction of natural resources that puts us in similar situations. This african country is close to us in many issues in which, for now, one could remark the Political Constitution and the role of the judicial branch.
Read MoreFuture university
Universities haven’t changed much during the last one hundred years. The idea is still the same: presencial lessons directed by a professor that repeats, semestre after semester, the contents of a class; written exams to discipline students periodically; programs and professors separated by the disciplinary frontiers of a century ago: still textbooks that loose their actuality as they are published.
Read MoreThe legal limits to the reforms to the Statute of the Interamerican Comssion of Human RIghts
Document on the process of reform of the Interamerican Comision of Human Rights, signed by 139 academics of different universities.
Read MoreLess flowers and more recognition
Colombia should abandon the logic of flowers, celebrations and congratulations. Women’s day wasn’t made to do an homage to the “female atributes” but to remember the inequalities and discrimination that women all around the world have to face.
Read MoreSantos and gender equality
The celebration of women’s day, last friday, is a good opportunity to think about the politics of the government to erase gender discrimination agains women. The balance is mixed.
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