Weekly Update on the implementation of the Peace Accord. The final peace accord contains a three-pronged approach to ensuring fulfillment of commitments included in the text: the Commission for Monitoring, Promotion, and Verification of the Implementation of the Peace Accord (CSIVI), the National Reincorporation Council (CNR) and the GOC-FARC-UN tripartite Monitoring and Verification Mechanism (MM&V).

Download Peace Mail /  01-07 October  2019 

The new quarterly Report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the Verification Mission in Colombia was issued. The report emphasizes that "two years after the conclusion of the weapons disposal process, it is of utmost importance to continue to emphasize that the vast majority of ex-combatants continue to participate in the peace process and develop productive efforts in collaboration with local communities, conducting academic studies, participating in local politics, creating and seeking opportunities for their families and contributing to the work of the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition”. In addition, the report notes that "at the current juncture, it is more important than ever to accelerate and deepen the implementation of the Peace Agreement as a whole," and that "the total consolidation of a peace that is a valuable opportunity for Colombia will require a comprehensive effort, for which Colombians can continue to count on the resolute support of the United Nations".¹

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace expelled "Ivan Marquez”, "Romaña," and "Zarco Aldinever", as it considered that the rearming ex-guerrillas failed to comply with the conditionality regime of the JEP. Indeed, the Truth and Responsibility Recognition Chamber argued that the three former FARC combatants are in breach of the basic principles of the transitional peace mechanism, i.e. commitment to truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition, as well as contribution to individual and collective reincorporation processes. As a result, they ordered the forfeiture of all transitional, legal and economic benefits. The Court’s decision asserted that the Prosecutor’s Office must reactivate the arrest warrants that were suspended when the three former guerrilla commanders submitted to the JEP, and that the ARN must deny all economic benefits to them.²

The 2019 Peasant Olympics for Peace, Legality and Coexistence have concluded. Over the past two months, the National Association of Peasant Users (ANUC) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace (OACP) joined forces to plan and hold Olympic games in order to generate trust and channels of dialogue between the government and the rural sector. The games took place in 25 departments, with the participation of 4,000 peasants. It used sports and peasant culture to strengthen peaceful coexistence, to bolster a culture of legality at the territorial level, but also to reinforce and safeguard local traditions and forms of expression and to promote them as an instrument for peace. In parallel, the OACP held a Services Fair which informed peasants about institutional offerings directed at the rural sector, including the strategic guidelines of the Territorial Councils for Peace, Reconciliation and Coexistence.³

Recruitment and forced displacement, the problems that persist in Risaralda. From the Departmental Table of Victims of Risaralda, community representatives and human rights defenders denounce that armed groups, and most recently the ELN, are offering money to families in exchange for recruiting their children. "They offer nearly 500,000 pesos to families to let their children go, and if they don't agree, they threaten them," says Eisenhower D'janon Zapata, a member of the Victims' Table. The Ombudsman's Office has issued early warnings about the displacements and confinements, the most recent being in June 2019, in which it warned that about 24,130 people were at risk in the municipality of Quinchía, including minors, miners, peasant leaders and indigenous peoples. In addition, more than 200 minors listed as “missing”, would be at risk of recruitment by illegal armed groups, says the report.⁴

Indigenous knowledge at risk from climate change. Colombia's 102 indigenous peoples suffer the effects of climate change, deforestation and environmental pollution. Luis Alberto Cotte Muñoz, of the Huitoto ethnic group, says that the group does not have access to clean water, as several tributaries are contaminated and logging is destroying sacred sites such as water springs and salt flats. Tree species native to the area are also being extinguished. He is concerned about increased exploitation of the land by cattle ranchers, and in other cases, by illegal armed groups who plant illicit crops, thereby threatening the native environment and traditional practices rooted in mother earth. For its part, ONIC reports that indigenous knowledge and beliefs about nature, the exercise of self-government and the lack of food autonomy of ancestral peoples are threatened by climate changes, territorial conflicts and extractive policies.⁵