Brochure2

Implementing Reparations For The Victims of Internal Armed Conflict In Colombia In Colombia the victims of the armed conflict are at the center of the peace-building process

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The Colombian government is committed to acknowledging the victims of the internal armed conflict and assisting them rebuild their lives

GENERAL CONTEXT

Colombia has suffered the longest internal armed conflict in the Western hemisphere. Due to confrontations between rebel groups, paramilitary structures, and the army, serious human rights violations have been committed, including forced displacement, kidnapping, extrajudicial executions, torture, forced disappearances, forced recruitment, and sexual violence. These abuses have affected nearly six million Colombian citizens. Violence has considerably limited the capacity of social networks, community associations, and human rights organizations to promote citizens’ interests.

The Colombian government has come a long way in the search for adequate responses to the massive and complex humanitarian situation. Since 1997, humanitarian assistance programs have been implemented for internally displaced people in order to mitigate the effects of human rights abuses, especially forced displacement. Other transitional justice initiatives were

also subsequently implemented, including the Peace and Justice process for the demobilization of paramilitary structures. In 2008 there were further attempts to respond victims’ needs, but the scope of these efforts were purely economic and based on a principle of solidarity by the state rather than its duty to protect citizens against serious rights violations.

In June 2011, Colombia decided to go a step beyond regarding victims’ rights to truth, justice and reparations. The approval of Law 1448 of 2011, also known as the Victims’ and Land Restitution Law, expands the scope of public policy for victims and incorporates a comprehensive approach to address the damages of decades of conflict. This legislation constitutes a significant advance towards overcoming the impact of mass atrocities and seeks to transform the living conditions of million victims in Colombia.

The Colombian Government approved the Victims’ Law, “which provides attention, assistance, and comprehensive reparations to the victims of the internal armed conflict and provides additional provisions,” on June 10, 2011. This law was approved after a failed attempt during the Uribe government and, now under the Santos administration, after a long and controversial negotiation process between various political parties. The law was singed by Santos in a symbolic ceremony with the participation of UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, who supported the law, but cautioned on the generation of expectations, and the lack of security and protection to achieve the meaningful participation of victims.

COMPREHENSIVE REPARATIONS:

A NECESSARY STEP FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION Reparations contribute to fostering a sense of civic trust, a key element for reconciliation in societies in conflict like Colombia. The Victims’ and Land Restitution Law locates victims at the center of the state’s actions and makes them drivers of the reconciliation process.

The Victims’ Law recognizes for the first time those human rights violations beyond abuses associated with forced displacement and land dispossession. Those who suffered kidnapping, execution, sexual violence, forced recruitment, foced disappearance, torture, or injures related to antipersonnel mines are entitled to remedies in line with damages suffered. According to the Victims and Land Restitution Law, armed conflict victims are entitled to monetary compensation, land restitution for those forced to abandon their lands, physical and psychological rehabilitation, satisfaction measures like public apologies and guarantees of nonrepetition of the crimes. These measures complement one other in order to redress the multiple and complex damages of human rights violations in individuals and groups.

The Colombian government’s approach is that victim’s redress should go beyond economic compensation

THE UNIT FOR COMPREHENSIVE ATTENTION AND REPARATIONS TO VICTIMS The Unit for Comprehensive Attention and Reparations to Victims (“the Unit”) is the entity of the Colombian government responsible for coordinating the implementation of the Victims’ Law. The Unit began functioning in January 2012 under the direction of Ms. Paula Gaviria, who was appointed by President Juan Manuel Santos.

The Unit works in coordination with 38 national and territorial entities that are part of the National System of Comprehensive Attention and Reparation to design and implement programs that allow victims access, gradually and progressively, to measures like psychological and physical rehabilitation, education, job training, housing, cancellation of debts, military service exemption, and forgiveness of taxes. The Unit’s main function is to harmonize and support all these efforts.

Other functions of the Unit include:

1. Coordinating actions at both the local and national levels; 2. Providing technical assistance to local authorities to strengthen their capacities in implementing the law; 3. Providing humanitarian assistance to victims and attending to humanitarian emergencies; 4. Operating the Unified Victims Registry; 5. Delivering monetary compensation and the development of programs to support victims in the effective management and investment of those resources; 6. Creating and maintaining, alongside local authorities, Regional Centers for Attention and Reparation;

7. Implementing the Collective Reparations Program for ethnic groups, communities, social and political groups and organizations; 8. Implementing return, relocations and reintegration programs for victims of forced displacement and hosting communities;

The Unit provides reparations and specialized attention, based on victims’ gender, ethnic origin, age, form of victimization, and their social and economic conditions.

9. Managing the Fund for Reparations; 10. Guaranteeing victims’ participation in the implementation of the law; 11. Leading commemorative and symbolic actions; 12. Promoting the inclusion of victims in all of the state’s social policies; 13. Providing guidance to all institutions in charge of implementing the law about adequate standards of attention and “do no harm” interventions; 14. Evaluating, following up and certifying the performance of entities in charge of implementing the law.

CHALLENGES AND ACTIONS

One of the most important objectives of the Victims and Land Restitution Law is to provide survivors with the opportunity to rebuild or build their lives and to make them active members of society as they fully exercise their rights.

Implementing reparations amidst poverty and ongoing armed actions

Achieving a better understanding the universe of victims

Armed groups continue to harm civilians, targeting leaders of victims’ organizations and human rights defenders. Forced to abandon their lands, houses, education and labor plans, most victims live in a condition of extreme poverty.

There is a paucity of information about victims and how the conflict has affected their lives. Moreover, victims face enormous obtacles to accessing official programs, in part due to lack information, fear, distrust in public institutions, or because they reside far from the state’s reach. The Victims’ Unit is conscious that adequate public policies start with an adequate diagnosis of the problem and rich knowledge of the situation that needs to be addressed. In order to evaluate victims’ applications to enter the Unifies Victims Registry, the Unit has set assessment criteria that are flexible and sensitive to the particularities of the conflict. The Unit is implementing different strategies to disseminate information about how victims can access programs and has created alliances to work with actors that have better access to regions or links with specific communities.

Additionally, the Unit is supporting and promoting the creation of Roundtables of Victims’ Participation in the municipalities, at the regional and national levels.

The Unit provides humanitarian assistance for victims of forced displacement and terrorism. The Unit is committed to ensuring non-repetition of crimes by monitoring conflict developments, warning about possible forced displacements, working with communities at risk, and coordinating protection for threatened leaders. The Unit works with other state institutions to prioritize victims’ access to social programs and to improve their social and economic status. The Unit is also implementing a program to offer alternatives and support for victims who choose to invest the resources of their compensation. This program is voluntary and provides the opportunity for victims to receive incentives to invest compensation in technical and superior education, productive projects, the acquisition of improvement of housing, or acquisition of rural lands.

Managing an Effective and Dignifying Model of Attention to Victims The magnitude of the abuses committed by armed actors in Colombia requires attention at a mass scale. During the course of this past year, for example, more than XXXX people have required attention nationally. The Unit is aware that each victim has a unique story, needs and expectations. Adding to the complexity, accessing a reparation program might be the first time a victim may have had contact with public institutions or, in other cases, victims may have been searching for help in many different places with no adequate answers.

The Unit has designed a Route of Reparation, in which each victim has a public functionary assigned to his or her case.

This allows the functionary to get to know him or her, to draw together with the victim a Reparation Plan, to explain what actions will be taken and to track progress. The public functionaries are professionals, with experience in working with human rights victims and with special training in the reparations programs. The Unit is working with local authorities in order to build 62 Regional Centers for Attention and Reparation across the country. These centers bring together institutional offerings where victims receive counseling, care

and support according to their particular situation and to facilitate access to protection measures, support, care, and reparations. The program also includes a permanent and mobile strategy to reach victims in distant regions.

Human rights violations require comprehensive responses Human rights violations have a disproportionate and differential impact on individuals and groups. The Unit works closely with the Land Restitution Unit, the Center for Historical Memory, local governments, victims organizations and hosting communities to concentrate implementation on high impact actions such as land restitution, reconstruction of the social fabric, return and integration programs and collective reparations. These focalized and harmonized actions are intended to maximize resources and impact and secure a sustainable process. One of the Unit’s priorities is to strengthen local government capacities to respond to victims’ needs, thereby ensuring sustainability.

VICTIMS AND LAND RESTITUTION LAW IN FIGURES Total Number of Victims 19?? - 2012 Percentage of Victims according to victimization

Forced Displacement %; Forced Recruitment %; Forced Disappearance %; Kidnapping %; Murder %; Sexual Violence %; Injures due to mines antipersonnel %; Torture %.

Percentage of victims according to gender, race, and age.

Budget to implement Victims and Land Restitution Law Implementation term of the law Unit’s total staff Unit budget for 2012 and 2013 Number of people forced displace in 2011, 2012 Number of people required attention 2012 Humanitarian assistance Number of Victims granted reparation 2012 Goal for victims reparations in 2013 Collective reparation cases in process Fun for Reparations

10 years 800? (?? Region, ?? in Bogota)

Contact

For further information please visit: www.unidaddevictimas.gov.co or contact comunicacionesvĂ­ctimas@unidadvictimas.gov.co