Power politics and inequality in Colombia: the use of transitional justice mechanisms to bring economic actors to account for their role in past atrocities

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The causes of the Colombian armed conflict are manifold. One of the most pervasive is the large-scale inequality, manifested, amongst others, in the fights over land and resources. With the demobilization of the AUC paramilitary groups, mobilization from below by civil society organizations and victims’ groups, as well as judicial innovation, we have been able to reveal some of the power politics and alliances that have contributed to fuel and sustain the conflict. This panel presents some of the country’s efforts to bring economic actors to account and avoid the perpetuation of inequality in the territories, as well as highlight the challenges that local actors and international organizations face to support these incipient efforts. Professor Nazih Richani will present his work on the factors explaining the peace deal achieved by President Santos with the FARC, amongst them the variations in the veto power of landowners and economic actors. Dr. Laura Bernal-Bermúdez and Lina Chaparro will present their work to understand the phenomenon of complicity in Colombia and access to justice for these cases. Álvaro Carreño will present the opportunities and challenges of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the ordinary jurisdiction to bring these actors to account, while Daniel Marin will discuss the need for international pressure to support social mobilization from below. Particularly the role of the UN Working Group to bring about accountability at the local level.

Sub Track

• Human Rights and Memory

Session Organizer

• Laura Bernal Bermúdez, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

Chair

• Kiran Stallone, University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley)

Discussant

• Rocio del Pilar Peña-Huertas, Universidad del Rosario

Individual Presentations

• Fragmented Hegemony and the Dismantling of the War System in Colombia - Nazih F Richani, Kean University

• Setting the stage for justice: an agency centered approach to access to justice for corporate complicity with past atrocities. Colombia 1970-2014 - Laura Bernal Bermúdez, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

• Judges facing the veto power of economic actors: How to articulate the ordinary criminal jurisdiction with the Special Jurisdiction for Peace - Álvaro Fabián Carreño Ordónez

• Transitional Justice Matters: Variations of Business Preferences in Transitional Justice in Colombia - Lina Chaparro, Universidad de los Andes

• Mind the Corporate Accountability Gap in Transitional Justice: The United Nations business and human rights field and a call for fostering an agenda of corporate accountability for atrocious crimes after violence - Daniel Marín López