Posts Tagged ‘Estado de Derecho’
What structure for the Special Jurisdiction for Peace?
The Colombian high courts have had strong offices for each magistrate while the institution in itself is relatively weak. The JEP should not copy this model because given its large size, the risks of incoherence and lack of coordination would increase.
Read MorePeace without State
What happened in Tumaco in recent weeks is proof that violence not only depends on peace agreements, but also on strengthening the local state.
Read MoreThe luck of prohibition: Bloomsday
The history of art is plagued with censorship. Ulysses, by the Irish author James Joyce, was banned for more than ten years and went to trial three times for being considered obscene.
Read MoreWho Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel?
Dictators will try to defeat art that opposes its vision of the world, but the resilience of art is inherent in its nature. Dictators can try to stifle it, imprison it, but history shows that it is impossible to fully wipe out or control art. In the end, you cannot break a butterfly on a wheel.
Read MoreTrump, Duterte and the “Strongman”
When we give swashbucklers like Duterte and Trump the absolute power to decide who is the good person and the bad, to remake what innocence and justice mean, we corrupt them absolutely. A leader who comes to power will eventually do anything to stay in power–including turning his back on those who put him there. And when we realize that we have unleashed a monster, it is already too late to put the genie back in the bottle.
Letter from Jamaica
Bolivar’s call in the letter from Jamaica has passed 200 years relatively unnoticed in Colombia.
Read MoreThe Imaginary Country
Colombians tend to find refuge in imagination in order to ignore the hardness of our social life.
Read MoreProhibitionists and Gangsters: Two Faces of the Same Coin
“Colombia has an alcohol market, but there is no Pablo Escobar of beer or vodka. And it is not because vodka is better than cocaine, but rather because it is legal,” explains Johann Hari.
Read MoreWatching Out from the South
For now, most anti-corruption activists demand for greater transparency. My specific call is that just as the global South human rights movement has enriched the debate on human rights generally, something similar could happen with anti-corruption monitoring from our countries.
Read MoreTechnical Report for Alternatives to Imprisonment for Drug-Related Offenses
Isagen
A decade ago, when my grandfather was 20 year old, Colombia had trains, a national postal system, a public health system, and a national telecommunications company; prestigious higher education was almost exclusively in the hands of the state, public services were provided by state-run companies, and there weren’t tolls on the highways because the state had built them.
Read MoreTutela UP – Díaz Mansilla Family
30 years ago Miguel Ángel Díaz was forcefully disappeared in Puerto Boyacá with participation of a DAS agent. He was one of the first victims of the persecution against the Patriotic Union.
Read MoreThe Right to Government: The Legal Effects of Institutional Apartheid in Colombia
This book defends the idea that people living in isolated territories have a right to institutional assistance; in other words, they have a right to government. Not just to any government, but one that that protects their dignity and their rights.
Read MoreCancer, Biotechnology Medicines and the Debate about Market Competition
Cancer rates are growing.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization (WHO), released it’s World Report on Cancer for 2014 last Monday, February 3, 2014.
Read MoreFriends of the “Tutela” Writ
A mistaken defense of the “tutela” write is leading to the reform that many critics of this vital tool to protect citizens rights have sought.
Read MoreSabotaging Institutions
Inspector General Ordóñez has managed to achieve his ultimate objective: he has discredited the Constitution of 1991 and created a suitable environment for a constitutional reform.
Read MoreThe Struggle for the Law
The objective of law is to bring peace, but the way to get there is through struggle.
Read MoreDaydreaming
At this point, with a few hours left until it is time for the traditional grapes and apple cider, the risk-takers have made all the political predictions for next year. Some have already re-elected Santos, other have reached a peace agreement, elected a new Congress and formed parliamentary coalitions.
Read MoreJustice and State Legitimacy
In “The City of God”, San Agustin tells the story of how Alejandro Magno captured a pirate and asked him why he robbed in the seas.
Read MoreSearching for the Leader of the Year
2013 is ending. It is time to recap the year´s events. Media organizations are making their lists of the best and worst of the year in opinion pieces and articles.
Read MoreThe 25th Anniversary of the Comission of Colombian Jurists
The CCJ is the Comission of Colombian Jurists, one of the most important and respected organization of human rights in Latin America. Last thursday it celebrated 25 years of admirable and unstoppable work for democracy and rights in Colombia.
Read MoreThe Inspector General’s Office: Unnecessary or Dangerous?
The Constitutional Court´s approval of the disciplinary measures against Piedad Córdoba shows the Inspector General´s enormous power. It is an unchecked power, since not even the Court can impose clear limits on it.
Read MoreThe Tea Party without a State
An article in the New Yorker from last weeks tells the story of how members of the Tea Party – the radical branch of the American Republican Party – began to doubt their decision to block the passage of the federal budget as a way to oppose the implementation of Obamacare, when they saw that this lead to fewer police officers on duty and the closure of the World War II monument.
Read MoreAltered State: Clientelism, Mafias and Institutional Weakness in Colombia
This book articulates a comprehensive vision of not only the the social and political effects of the paramilitary phenomenon in Colombia, but also of the institutional and legal weaknesses of the Colombian government, which has been captured by mafias and political actors.
Read MoreJudges Without the State
This book is the outcome of a research made in Colombia between 2005 and 2007 on judges working in armed conflict zones in Colombia.
Read More