Multi-door Courthouses: A Good Idea Badly Administered
In the face of the crisis– and the stikes– in the judiciary, these alternative centers of attention become more important. What are they, what have they done, and how can they improve their services in Colombia.
Read MoreVote Thresholds and Participation (II)
In my past Op-ed I argued for reforming referendum and repeal voting processes to replace the current “participatory threshold” to an “approbatory threshold.”
Read MoreMontaigne, Five Centuries Later
Michel de Montaigne, the great French renaissance thinker, said that humans are not superior to animals and that the idea of evading our own animal condition is stupid and stubborn arrogance.
Read MoreThe Fracking Ex-Minister
There’s something a bit circular and paradoxical in Juan Carlos Echeverry’s defense of fracking. The president of Ecopetrol says today that “we cannot give ourselves the luxury” of not extracting pretroleum using that technique despite the serious risks it poses for our water and environment.
Read MoreQueering Human Rights
While we have seen impressive steps forward in providing protection for people of diverse sexual orientations and gender expressions, we need to ensure that greater coordination of advocacy and standard setting at the local, national, regional, and international levels does not create a homogenizing pressure to a single conception of sexuality or gender.
Read MoreWrits of Constitutional Protection and Judicial Congestion
Levying some type of cost on entities that violate fundamental rights is a better strategy for avoding judicial congestion than recurring proposals asking for more money and more judges for the judiciary.
Read MoreVote Thresholds and Participation
The recognized difficulty in surpassing a vote threshold to referend an eventual peace accord or to impeach a mayor begs the following question: Could it be that the 1991 Constitution made a mistake in establishing thresholds for high-level decisions in Colombia and that moreover are “participation thresholds” and not “approval thresholds”?
Read MoreMy Enemies’ Enemies
Among the many things written after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, I read an article by Michael Walzer that I found to be particularly interesting.
Read MoreA Carlos Gaviria Law
Perhaps there is no better way to pay homage to Carlos Gaviria than through a law. Nothing like the law— which he defended at the risk of his own life like an intellectual, judge, and public figure— to preserve his legacy and example.
Read MoreTalking about Privacy at the UN
It would do us well to have an arena dedicated to established principles, standards and best practices to protect privacy. A warm welcome for the new Rapporteur.
Read MoreIn memory of Alvaro Camacho
What separated me from Alvaro Camacho Guizado was his incomprehensible passion for Millionarios (soccer team), but I was drawn close to him due to the admiration I had since I was very young for the way this great scholar, who died unexpectedly and prematurely last week, could analyze, with rigor and passion, essential issues to Colombia, such as drug trafficking, violence, public safety, and recovery of historical memory.
Read MoreThe photo of the( afro) year
With ironic timing, Hola magazine closes the international year for people of African descent with a photo of two black maids (that is what they are in the image), stationed as ornaments in the margins of the scene where their white patrons- “the most powerful women in the Cauca Valley”, according to Hola- pose in front of the pool of their” formidable Hollywood mansion.”
Read MoreSantos and Corzo: petrol problems
How is the President of the Congress similar to the President of the Republic?
Read MoreTo reduce informality: equitable education
The new Minister of Labour should be one of the most interested in supporting the requirements of the student movement.
Read MoreBlind judicial reform?
Wouldn’t it be better to strive for reliable information and a solid diagnosis of our judicial system rather than blindly reform it?
Read MoreTrans-forming public policy
In a recent ruling, the Constitutional Court acknowledges the widespread discrimination against trans people and ordered a LGBTI national public policyI.
Read MoreDignified and decent work in Colombia
Labor issues occupy a priority place in social concerns. In countries like Colombia, there is a close connection between social security and labor relations. For this reason it has been argued that policies aimed at creating decent work are the best way to make social policy.
Read MoreHappily adopted but sadly separated
Two Colombian brothers aged 9 and 13 who were abandoned small and lived in very difficult conditions, were lucky to find an American who adopted them and loves them. It was a story that seemed happy but suddenly became sad, since several months ago the children have been separated from his father by the ICBF.
Read MoreThe awarded dogs of Fernando Vallejo
The criticism to Fernando Vallejo for announcing on Saturday, in the acceptance speech of the award from the Guadalajara Book Fair, that he would donate the $150,000 of the award to two Mexican organizations that look after stray dogs just commenced.
Read MoreFree education
If one takes seriously the invitation of students to build a reform from the formula of education as a right and pursuit of equality, free universal proposal does not do very well.
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