Transitional Justice

We focus on the rights of victims to truth, justice, reparation and reconciliation in the context of armed conflict

Photo: Trocaire

Victims' Rights & Constitutional Transitions

We focus on the rights of victims to truth, justice, reparation and reconciliation in the context of armed conflict in Colombia. Our advocacy in Colombia on these issues has an international perspective, which we hone by developing case studies on constitutional transitions in other parts of the world and participating in forums for expertise- sharing which bring together international organizations and networks.

We analyze and have an influential expert voice in the Processes of Justice and Peace, the Legal Framework for Peace, the Law of Victims and, currently, the Peace Process in Colombia. We study and contribute to the debate on the mechanisms for the approval of the peace agreement, prosecution, alternative penalties, and the truth commission—always with a distributive justice perspective and with the aim of achieving reparations that are truly transformative.

Activities & Direct Advocacy

Defending the Colombian Peace Agreement through strategic litigation

By Fabián Eduardo Mendoza Pulido | Nov 24, 2023

Dejusticia’s legal support for the upholding of the peace agreement illustrates the vital role of an organized and alert civil society in ensuring the implementation of policy. This oversight role is among the most important functions of civil society in a democratic system.

The ABCs of the Social Protest and Human Rights Crisis in Colombia

By Daniela Jiménez González, Diana Esther Guzmán Rodríguez | May 11, 2021

If you have not yet understood the serious situation in the streets of Colombia since April 28, 2021, we explain three essential aspects of the social mobilization agenda in which violence has been an unfortunate protagonist.

Leaders Assassinated in Colombia: how many are left out of the counts?

By Dejusticia | Oct 18, 2018

This analysis by Dejusticia and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group groups the information compiled by different organizations regarding the homicides of social leaders in the country and concludes, through a statistical method, that the problem has a greater magnitude than what is reported.

Litigation

Rural reform decree to resolve historic debt with peasants

By César Rodríguez-Garavito (Retired in 2019), Rodrigo Uprimny Yepes, Nelson Camilo Sánchez León, Irina Alejandra Junieles Acosta, Gabriela Eslava, Ana Jimena Bautista, Maryluz Barragán | Aug 15, 2017

Terrible conditions in the countryside and lack of access to land are linked to the armed conflict. Point one of the Peace Agreement, which is under study by the Constitutional Court, addresses these issues. Dejusticia presented an intervention supporting most of its content.

Prison is not the only sanction in transitional justice mechanisms

By César Rodríguez-Garavito (Retired in 2019) | Jul 26, 2017

César Rodríguez defended that the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Repetition is in line with the Constitution. Regarding penalties, he affirmed that international law discusses effective sanctions, not imprisonment.

The reform that gives stability and legal certainty to the Peace Agreement is constitutional

By César Rodríguez Garavito (Se retiró en 2019), Rodrigo Uprimny Yepes, Diana Isabel Güiza Gómez | Jul 26, 2017

Dejusticia defended the constitutionality of the Legislative Act that gives legal certainty to the Final Agreement, and stressed that its contents respond to fundamental rights and international humanitarian law norms.

Columns &
Blogs

I don’t care if they call me a dictator.

By Nina Chaparro González | Aug 15, 2025

During his six years in office, Bukele has consolidated his power, paving the way to become the dictator he appears to be announcing himself as.

NGOs at risk of global extinction

By Nina Chaparro González | Jul 3, 2025

How can non-governmental organizations transform themselves? What were they like when they did not depend on international funding?

Colombia: going back to the original balance of justice

By Paola Molano Ayala | Nov 26, 2024

There is a crucial aspect of Colombia’s transitional justice model that is worrying: the current inability of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) to offer legal security to those who participated in the conflict, including in human rights violations, and have not been identified as among the most responsible. And making sure they also contribute to the satisfaction of the rights of the victims. The JEP must avoid keep moving towards maximalist approaches and go back to the balance in the Peace Agreement.

Project Highlights

Photo: Piyushgiri Revagar

Accountability of Corporate Actors During Transitional Justice Processes

As part of a broader project on the accountability of corporate actors during transitional processes, Dejusticia, along with partner organizations, intervened in the the 2nd Session of Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights

Dejusticia, as an organization with ECOSOC consultative status, presented an oral intervention during the second panel of the session, calling attention to the special conditions of societies living in the context of conflict or undergoing a transition process. These societies have special conditions as they demand accountability from economic actors that have cooperated or assisted in the violation of human rights during armed conflict. Thus, Dejusticia requested that the Working Group consider specific provisions that take into account the needs of these societies to prosecute corporate complicity with conflict actors.

A transcript of our intervention can be found here.

Normative implementation of the peace agreement

Dejusticia analyzes and tracks the normative implementation of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP. Our work includes short documents analyzing the constitutional and legal reforms that develop the agreement; participation in public hearings in Congress; interventions before the Constitutional Court; work in networks of civil society organizations, academics and university research groups; and participation in media debates.