Restorative Justice: Colombia and the Special Jurisdiction of Peace

JUNIOR LAWYERS DIVISION

Restorative Justice: Colombia and the Special Jurisdiction of Peace

How do communities address serious human rights violations and war crimes following an armed conflict? International criminal tribunals typically adopted a retributive approach when dealing with such matters. Following the end of one of the longest civil wars in history, Colombia adopted a different, and novel, approach.

Part of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces in Colombia (FARC) was the creation of a new legal framework designed to investigate and sanction the perpetrators of serious human rights violations during the civil war. The length of the armed conflict and the extent of the violations and war crimes left the newly formed Special Jurisdiction of Peace (SJP) with a mammoth task to complete.

The SJP came into force in March 2017 and was designed to sit separately from the ordinary court system and with restorative justice at its heart. Restorative justice focuses on allowing both the victims and perpetrators to communicate with one another. It can be empowering for the victim in that it gives them a voice and allows them to confront the perpetrator as part of their own healing process. For the perpetrator, it confronts them with the personal impact of their crime and can be an effective way to see the impact of their actions on a human level and can help to come to terms with their actions.

The SJP forms part of the transitional justice component of the peace agreement and has sought to encompass truth, justice, reparations and a guarantee of non-recurrence as part of its structure. One of its characteristics has been to allow victims to participate and engage directly in the process such as providing their views for any non-prison sentences which may include community-based intervention working to repair any damage caused to the victim.

It remains to be seen what lessons can be learnt from the Colombian context and how restorative justice can be used as an effective means to heal and restore the social fabric of our communities.

Rishi Joshi

Solicitor

Hodge Jones & Allen