Posts Tagged ‘Colombia’
Born Before Your Time
The Swiss scientist said once: “Those who believe in progress are destined to lament being born before their time.”
Read MoreThe Transmilenio Line Cutters
In every society there is a percentage of inidividuals that violate norms. That percentage usually falls below 1% in regards to crimes like homocide, theft, or battery; and rarely exceeds 10% when dealing with citizen norms, like respecting lines and traffic lights.
Read MoreScience and Democracy at the Solicitor General’s Office
A few days ago, when there was a political discussion, there were two opposing sides.
Read MoreTeachers’ Pay
In a just society, merit and effort are reflected in a person’s pay for his or her job. This idea is illustrated in a famous quote from Bill Clinton: “if you work hard and don’t break the rules, you can expect the country to give you an opportunity to a decent life and that your kids will have a better life than you did.”
Read MoreSurprises in Express Decrees
Many have correctly criticized the “express compilation” of norms that the Ministry of Environment promulgated last week, a hefty volume of 732 pages that although seeks to replace all the decrees in the matter, was released only three days prior to the end of the period for comments.
Read MoreMulti-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 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 MoreHans Kelsen in the Tropics
Abelarde De la Espriella, Jorge Pretelt’s lawyer, published this week a column in El Heraldo, where he responds to those who criticized him for saying that ethics have nothing to do with law.
Read MoreLaw and Ethics
Societies that constantly experience scandals, like ours, suffer from a type of collective squizofrenia. Each story of corruption produces two opposite reactions: while some, the moralists, throw up their hands in horror and clamer for exemplary punishments, others, the cynics, shrug their shoulders and say that nothing has happened until there’s a final conviction.
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 Culture of Compliments and Street Harassment
Giving compliments on the street is not flattering, it is sexual harassment of women on the street.
Read MoreWhat is Missing from the Separate Spaces for Women
Parting from the assumption that the separate spaces for women on the Transmilenio public transportation system is just a temporary measure that is attempting to mitigate a particular problem, we cannot ask to much of it.
Read MoreWho Decides When it Comes to Mining?
Contrary to what the Minister of Mining and the newspaper El Tiempo said, referring to the recent decision of the Constitutional Court, citizens can organize consultations to oppose the effects of mining in their territories,
Read MoreBlank Votes: Who Wins?
The blank vote appears to be a strike against political clientelism. But in reality, at least in the congressional elections this Sunday, it is strike against the public itself, since it favors the clientelist machinery.
Read MoreThe Displaced Persons’ “Tutela” Writ
While eveyone discusses the “tutela” writs of Mayor Petro’s case, the 10th anniversary of perhaps the most important tutela decision of the Colombian Constitutional Court has been forgotten: the T-025 of 2004. Since then, then, this decisions has been protecting the rights of five million colombians that are victims of forced displacement.
Read MoreThe Commerce Clubs
Commerce has became a subject of bilateral and regional agreements that work like exclusive country clubs, where everyone wants to become a member. But at what cost are these memberships?
Read MoreStaggering Ignorance
Many of those who oppose any changes to drug policies make such staggering mistakes that it would be funny if it weren’t for their tragic effects. Their ignorance or prejudices perpetuate a policy that is misguided policy and that continues to cause lots of suffering in the world.
Read MoreThe Electoral Debate on Drugs
Congressional candidates have broken the taboo. For the first time the debate about drugs and their regulation has taken hold of the campaigns in Colombia.
Read MoreLeaks, Impeachments and Military Justice
The conversations between high ranking military officials revealed by Semana magazine not only shows serious cases of corruption, it also refutes one of the main arguments the government used to expand the jurisdiction of military justice in Colombia.
Read MoreTransitional Justicie and the Peace Process in Colombia
This article studies the measures that society and the Colombian government should implement to democratically overcome the armed conflict. These measures are both numerous and complex.
Read More