NOVEMBER MEETINGS AND TRAININGS
Bogotá Colombia - November 15-16, 2007
The focus of the November trainings in Colombia was to provide legal analysis of the shortcomings in the Justice and Peace Law of 2005 and training on international law to the Women, Gender for Truth, Justice, Reparations and Reconciliation Working Group. The SIGNAL training provided the Working Group with advocacy techniques, using international law, to lobby the governmental and judicial authorities responsible for the implementation of the JPL and demand that they ensure the participation of women in the transitional justice process and their right to reparations under the law.
The training was a huge success! The Working Group will submit five thematic reports to the National Commission on Reparation and Reconciliation (created by the JPL) and now have the initial tools to ensure that victim and civil society participation is a priority in implementation of the law. SIGNAL had several meetings with key women leaders and began discussions with Corporación Humanas on how it can forge new legal precedents, a feat that would have great regional impact.
The Working Group on Women, Gender for Truth, Justice, Reparations and Reconciliation consists of six Latin American NGOs that participated in the training sessions. Corporación Humanas, CIASE (Corporación de Investigación y Acción Social y Economica), IMP (Iniciativa de Mujeres Colombianas por La Paz), Corporación Humanizar, Redepaz, and Confluencia seek to utilize various key international legal tools as a means to domestic reform in Colombia. Key international legal tools such as the ICC Rome Statute, CEDAW, UNSCR 1325, and the ICCPR, among others, will contribute to a larger discourse and analysis of the JPL and other transitional justice processes in Colombia. The Working Group seeks to use these key tools as viable vehicles for domestic legal reform in the Colombian peace process.
The SIGNAL team also met with the Attorney General's Office, academics, and law students interested in creating a larger movement that draws international attention to issues of gender redress and women's rights on transitional justice and peace proccesses in Colombia.