The boicot to Los Tres Caínes and the independence of the media

By: Luz María Sánchez Duque

The strategy that intends that advertisers withdraw their advertising cannot be seen as a threat to the independence of the media.

Freedom of speech, Rule of law, Access to public information

The strategy of Colombia before the Interamerican Court of Human Rights in the case of the Palace of Justice: ¿poor or malintentioned?

By: Rodrigo Uprimny Yepes

En my previous entry, I showed, without pretending to be exhaustive, some punctual but huge mistakes and contradictions of the pledge of Colombia before the Interamerican Court of Human Rights in the case of the Palace of Justice. In this entry, as I had said, I will analice the strategy of defense. I again apologize for the extent and the excess of technico-juridical arguments, but I think that this examination is necessary.

Military courts

Law of Justice and Peace

Defendant: Normas demandadas: artículos 2, 4, 47 48, 49, 71 y 72 de la ley 975 de 2005

Public action against the unconstitutionality of the articles 2, 4, 47, 48, 49, 71 & 72 of the Law 975 of 2005. Lawsuit : Norms demanded: Articles 2, 4, 47 48, 49, 71 & 72 of the Law 975 of 2005

There is no free lunch

By: Nelson Camilo Sánchez

Some weeks ago the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held a meeting in Medellin following an invitation from the Colombian government. It was not a gratuitous invitation. The government created an opportunity to send two messages to the court regarding how it expects this body to issue rulings about cases related to our country in the future.

Family fights

By: Mauricio García Villegas

It is foten spoken from the friends and the enemies of peace, as if they were two groups clearly distinguished between them. However the talks with the subversive give raise to a more complex debate.

Truth, Lands, Peace, Transitional justice, FARC guerilla, Rule of law, ELN guerilla

Defendant: Fiscalía General de la Nación y otro.

The intervention relates to a motion for legal protection in which a victim of a serious violation of his human rights, in spite of being in an unusual and extreme security risk, received no protection from existing security programs. Dejusticia requests the Constitutional Court to take the necessary steps in order to crease the violation of the plaintiff's fundamental rights and to consider that this case is one of many that exist today in the country, where victims and witnesses of the conflict did not receive effective, adequate, and specific protection, and, therefore, declare that there is an unconstitutional state of affairs. If this were the case, the Court should issue the necessary orders for the different institutions that are responsible of protection programs to appropriate them to the minimum of rationality imposed by the Court and to adapt them to the conditions of the Colombian context.

Constitutional claim for victims of forced disappearance to be recognized as victims of political violence in order for them to have access to humanitarian aid.

Defendant: Artículo 15 de la Ley 418 de 1997, tal como fue modificado por el artículo 6 de la Ley 782 de 2002, y artículo 49 de la Ley 418 de 1997.

It is estimated that in Colombia there have been nearly 50,000 forced disappearances. Despite this shocking number and despite the gravity and atrocity of the crime, relatives of missing persons are not recognized in the Act 418 of 1997 as victims of political violence and therefore are not beneficiaries of humanitarian aid. The granting of such aid to the families of missing people has been subject in practice to the discretion of Social Action functionaries who, in the best cases, have attempted to apply the requirements that are demanded to relatives of murdered people. Families of missing people have been requested to overtake civil proceedings to obtain the declaration of presumed death in order to replace the death certificate that must be provided by families of murdered ones. Putting forward this process involves not only a disproportionate expenditure for disappearance victims but also a painful experience that leads them to resign to their hope of finding their missing. This claim, submitted jointly by the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation and Dejusticia, aims to correct this legislative omission so that victims of forced disappearance are recognized as victims of political violence and so that they have access to humanitarian aid without having to advance processes of presumed death declaration.

What is the current state of the land restitution process?

By: Aura Patricia Bolivar Jaime

It is about time to make a balance of the land restitution process, which recognizes the rights of victims that have been subject of land dispossession. There are important advances, although these are taking place at a slow rate. There are four obstacles that should be removed as soon as possible.

The land that the Incora plundered

By: Aura Patricia Bolivar Jaime

The plundering of lands was caused not only by ilegal actors, but also by the State, according the first decision on restitution in the Cesar.

Forced displacement, Constitutional Court, Corruption

Intervention in the lawsuit against article 9 of the Law of Victims

Defendant: Últimos dos incisos del artículo 9 de la ley 1448 de 2011

Dejusticia intervened in a lawsuit against article 9 of the Law of Victims in which it was considered that the law obliged to the reparation in a judicial stage to be equal to the compensation in an administrative stage. On our behalf, we proposed another interpretation of the norm, according to which the law obliges the judge to take into account the actuations via the administrative procedure on the time of fixating an integral reparation, without this meaning that the reparation has to be equal to the amount of them. Otherwise, the norm would be unconstitutional.

Intervention on the constitutionality of the victims law (Land restitution)

Defendant: Artículos 28 numeral 9 (parcial), 70 (parcial), 72 incisos 1, 2, 4 y 5 (parciales); 73 numerales 1 y 2 (parciales),74, inciso 6 (parcial), 75 (parcial), 76 inciso 4 (parcial) e inciso 5; 77 numerales 3 y 4 parciales; 78 (parcial) de la ley 1448 de 2011.

DeJusticia addressed the Constitutional Court in regards with a law suit established against the Victims Act. We support three charges of the lawsuit: the first one, to include in various articles of the Act the grounds of "forced abandonment"; the second one, to declare unconstitutional the penalty to victims who, through non-legal recourse's, occupy the lands awaiting to be restored; and the third one, to declare unconstitutional the presumption the law brings for the opposing party. In another charge we differ from the applicants regarding the Abandoned and Forcefully Stripped Land Registry, because we believe that it does need to be a procedural requirement for the restitution action.

Inscription:

Curso de formación a funcionarios(as) del Consejo Noruego para Refugiados para que conozcan las acciones que competen a las autoridades dentro de la ruta de restitución de tierras en los términos establecidos en la Ley 1448 de 2011 y sus decretos reglamentarios.

Inscription:

Se realizó la primera jornada de capacitación del 08 al 12 de febrero, en la Escuela Judicial RLB. Esta jornada contó con una serie de plenarias y tres talleres prácticos en justicia transicional, ruta de restitución y proceso judicial. Se entregaron documentos y materiales, así como borrador del documento de Justicia Transicional Civil. La capacitación estuvo dirigida a funcionarios judiciales, funcionarios de la UAEGRT y procuradores.

The peace framework and the importance of its controversy

By: Nelson Camilo Sánchez

The public debate regarding how to deal with the consequences of the armed conflict and the best ways of overcoming it and not living it again, is perhaps one of the most important discussions that should take place in the country. The negotiation table at Havana and the possible agreements that could be achieved have awakened, therefore, an important and necessary debate. The recently approved constitutional reform known as the legal framework for the peace has also gained attention.

A tedious debate

By: Mauricio García Villegas

Eduardo Posada Carbó does not agree with my Op-Ed of some weeks ago regarding the current peace process, in which I talk about the scarcity of consensus and foundational myths in the history of Colombia

Intervention juridical frame for peace

Defendant: Acto legislativo No. 01 de 2012

Dejusticia intervened before the Constitutional Court in the process of the lawsuit against some expressions of the juridical frame for peace, to point out that, according to us, the suited act does not substitue a constitutional pillar, it only restricts certain constitutional principles after balancing them in the fram of a process of transicional justice.

Intervention regarding the scope of the expression "due to the armed conflict" of the Victim's Law

Defendant: Art. 3 de la Ley 1448 de 2011

DeJuSticia supported the unconstitutional claim seeking that the expression "due to the armed conflict" of the Victim's Law be understood in its broadest sense. The intervention presents some criteria that must be taken into account to identify when a violation occurs in the context of armed conflict.

Diploma in Gender and Transitional Justice (Villavicencio)

Inscription: 2012-03-22

La constatación de que en Colombia existe un debate vigoroso sobre los derechos de las víctimas y una lucha por la configuración de algunos mecanismos de la justicia de transición en los que el enfoque de género y, en particular, los derechos de las mujeres han estado ausentes, llevaron a ONU Mujeres y a Dejusticia a considerar la importancia de contar con procesos de capacitación que permitan la discusión teórica y práctica sobre la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en los procesos de justicia transicional, construcción de paz y prevención de conflictos. Para más información consulte el brochure.

Diploma in Gender and Transitional Justice (Neiva)

Inscription:

La constatación de que en Colombia existe un debate vigoroso sobre los derechos de las víctimas y una lucha por la configuración de algunos mecanismos de la justicia de transición en los que el enfoque de género y, en particular, los derechos de las mujeres han estado ausentes, llevaron a ONU Mujeres y a Dejusticia a considerar la importancia de contar con procesos de capacitación que permitan la discusión teórica y práctica sobre la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en los procesos de justicia transicional, construcción de paz y prevención de conflictos.