Petro's balcony –and now, Falcao's knee—have managed to overshadow the recent Constitutional Court decision regarding the Legal Framework for Peace.

For those of us who were born in the 80's, hope is almost an unknown feeling. We know that it is like an abstract idea, since we hear it from the mouth of leaders who fought against the violence. But back then the idea was not only never put in practice, it was also used to aggressively repress those who dared proclaim it.

The objective of law is to bring peace, but the way to get there is through struggle.

Since 2011, Coalition 1325 has drafted a report on UN Security Council´s Resolution 1325 monitoring the implementation of the Resolution in Colombia. This year, given the peace dialogues between the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP, this report is especially important because Resolution 1325 calls upon signatory states to include women in peace processes and post conflict scenarios, and to guarantee the rights of the women victims of armed conflict.

Ivan Cepeda’s proposal of creating a broad alliance with a presidential candidate and a roster of congressional candidates is the Left´s best bet, not only for it’s future, but for the country.

Land reform in Colombia, while politically sensitive, is necessary to stabilize the country and end a violent conflict that has plagued Colombians for more than half a century. Colombia’s internal fighting has deprived millions of their land and livelihood. Adopted in June 2011, Colombia’s Victims and Land Restitution Law, also known as Law 1448, is an important advance in providing restitution for those displaced by the conflict.

It is contradictory for the Government to accept responsibility before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ICHR) for two of the disappearances at the Palace of Justice and for the torture of two of the detainees, but then try to minimize its responsibility with regard to the other nine missing persons or the execution of Clerk Urán, by saying that what happened was a merely a governmental failure, but not a disappearance or execution.

Injustices cause wars but wars, in turn, also cause injustices. In Colombia, for example, injustice derives from the high inequality in agrarian land ownership, which was used by the guerrillas as a justification for their armed uprising.

The government’s legal defense in the Palace of Justice case took an important turn toward decency when the lawyer Nieto Loaiza was taken off the case.