Recognizing the Truth
As UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Hawa Bangura said, breaking the armed groups’ silence about sexual violence is one of the first necessary steps to guarantee truth and justice to victims.
Read MoreThe Outstanding Debts of the Ranchería Dam
Coauthored by Angélica María Cuevas
The idea calling for a second phase of the El Cercado dam in the Riego Ranchería District of La Guajira (a Department in Northeastern Colombia), has revived the indigenous group Wiwa’s concerns. They belive that, for a second time, their opinion has not been considered in the government’s plans to authorize, since this year, the construction of preliminary public works for the construction of damns and irrigation systems in the Districts of Ranchería and San Juan del Cesar. These works, according to Ariel Borbón Ardila, head of the Colombian Institute for Rural Development (Incoder, by its name in Spanish), are estimated to cost $546 Billion Colombian Pesos (about $227.5 Million U.S. dollars).
Read MoreThe Legal Vine of Peace
Peace, according to the FARC, is basically a political process that should remove the “legal vine” with which some would like to choke the life out of it. César Gaviria has weighed in similarly ashis idea of “transitional justice for everyone” is not legal but political: the ex-President thinks of it as a “collective political decision,” that cannot be put off by international law.
Read MoreLaw and Honor
One time I found myself with a foreign colleague that moved to Colombia. I asked how he was doing and he said he was doing very well, that he loved traveling through the country and enjoy the diversity of climates, fruits, and landscapes.
Read MoreJudging High-Level Public Servants
Last week there were newstories about two cases that involved high-level public servants.
Read MorePeace and Prison
The magic of prison is to create the illusion of resolving problems, when it simply hides or postpones them. It’s the form of sweeping under the rug our incapacity to deal with our issues: prison for those who discriminate, for drunk drivers, for young people who use drugs.
Read MoreThe Venezuelan Crisis: From Politics to Human Rights
It’s time to break political factions’ monopoly on the debate about Venezuela and see the situation for what it truly is: a human rights crisis.
Read MoreGender Inequality in the Labor Market: An Unresolved Challenge in Developing Countries
Global South countries cannot be content to have greater levels of women’s participation in the labor force if these do not go together with lower unemployment levels and higher salaries.
Read MoreDoubly (in)fallible?
I was convinced that the charismatic Pope Francis was doubly infallible. First for being Pope, as according to the First Vatican Council of 1870, the Supreme Pontiff does not make mistakes, at least when his declarations have benefited from the assistance of the Holy Spirit. And second for being an Argentine… well at least Argentines seem to think that makes you infallible.
Read MoreDemocratic Judicial Independence
Jules Jouy, a nineteenth century Frenchman, said that there were three types of judges: those that decide standing, those that decide sitting in their chairs, and those that decide laying face down.
Read MoreRodrigo Uprimny’s intervention in the VII Encounter of the Constitutional Jurisdiction
On October 10th-12th, 2011, the VII Encounter of the Constitutional Jurisdiction was held in the city of Bogotá. This time, the Constitutional Court commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 1991 Constitution, in an event called “Constitutional dialogues with the world.”
This encounter was attended by two founding members of Dejusticia: Rodrigo Uprimny and Helena Alviar.
Read MoreCruelty regarding sexual violence
The cruelty of the State’s indifference to the suffering of women victims of sexual violence continues to spread and threatens to deepen.
Read MoreSecular state, scientific uncertainties, and abortion
Defenders of abortion criminalization in all circumstances depart from three assumptions: i) that every fertilized egg is a person; ii) that, therefore, abortion is unjustifiable, since it destroys a human being and is equivalent to murder, and iii) that therefore abortion should be illegal in all cases to protect human life.
Read MoreRich and unequal
The 2011 national human development report from PNUD was just emitted. It states once again that we don’t distribute things well enough in Colombia. Not a novelty. It confirms that we are one of the most unequal countries in the world with a Gini index of income inequality of 0.58 and 0.85 for rural property, where 1 is absolute inequality.
Read MoreDiscriminating freedom of expression
Despite its good intentions, the new law that criminalizes discrimination due to political or ideological reasons violates freedom of expression.
Read MoreTop Secret
The bill of intelligence and counterintelligence whose constitutionality is currently under review of the Court and in which a group of organizations intend to intervene, considered legitimate to reserve from the public eye all the information produced by entities such as the DAS for the modest sum of 30 years.
Read MoreSymbolic tribunal against sexual violence in Colombia
Last Monday, in Bogota, met a major symbolic international tribunal that examined sexual violence against women in armed conflict in Colombia.
Read MoreThe new society of Gilma Jiménez
“Why do you insist so much in life imprisonment?” asked the newspaper El Tiempo to Gilma Jiménez, referring to her plan to resurrect through referendum her proposal to amend the Constitution in order to punish with death penalty the murder, rape and other crimes against children.
Read MorePrivate vices, public virtues
The privacy of public figures is not the same as the one of a normal man or woman.As announced by the Hungarian movie from which I stole the title for this column, transparency in family, personal, and social relationships of public figures does care.
Read MoreImpunity, despair, and punitive populism
Violence and crime, with high doses of impunity, lead to despair and are a fertile ground for proposals of punitive tightening.
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