Addressing Past Injustice, Empowering for the Future? Reparation Policies and ‘Victim’ or ‘Survivor’ Identities in Tolima, Colombia

ABSTRACT

Colombia’s Victims and Land Restitution Law of 2011 (Law 1448) has established an ambitious reparation framework. Using primary data from six municipalities in Tolima, we highlight how the limited realisation of Law 1448’s transformative aspirations has contributed to a complex co-existence of ‘victim’ and ‘survivor’ identities. We argue that this pattern reflects the ambiguities of a reparation framework that emphasises the transformation of victims into empowered agents but struggles to fulfil its promises due to insufficient resources. To fully understand pitfalls and opportunities of transformative justice, researchers need to pay closer attention to its impact on people’s everyday survival strategies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The second project also employed participatory videography and social cartography to gain a deeper understanding of people’s experience of the civil war and their visions of the future. As these methods were concerned with a different research angle that emphasised research participants’ connections with their physical and emotional environment, their findings are not reported here.

2. The derecho de petición is the constitutionally guaranteed right for any Colombian citizen to use state bureaucratic channels in order to obtain information, request a service, log a complaint or make suggestions relating to a public entity, private company, association, organisation or professional authority figure (see also Art. 23 of the Colombian Constitution and Ministerio de Justicia y del Derecho 2022).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Ministerio de la Ciencia, Tecnología y Educación de Colombia [16-428-INT]; UK Research and Innovation [ES/R010625/1].

Notes on contributors

John Uribe

John Uribe is an Associate Professor at the Family Studies Department from the Universidad de Caldas, Colombia. He specializes in participatory peacebuilding, youth cultures and territorial conflicts from an identity perspective.

Ulrike Theuerkauf

Ulrike Theuerkauf is an Associate Professor in Politics and International Development at the University of East Anglia, UK. Her research deals with the different manifestations, causes and consequences of political violence.

María Salamanca

María Salamanca is a researcher and professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Ibagué, Colombia. She works on issues related to peacebuilding, historical memory, coexistence and citizenship, resilience from the perspective of victims, women and local organizations.

Santiago Padilla

Santiago Padilla is a Political Scientist from the University of Ibagué, Colombia, and specialist in Do No Harm and Peacebuilding from the National University of Colombia. His main research areas are historical memory of the armed conflict in Colombia, history of pro-peace policies in Colombia, peacebuilding, conflict analysis and horizontal research.

Iokiñe Rodriguez

Iokiñe Rodriguez is an Associate Professor at the School of International Development from the University of East Anglia, UK. She specializes in conflict transformation, environmental justice, intercultural dialogue, cultural revitalization, politics of knowledge and decolonial research in conflict ridden contexts in Latin America.

Cristina Sala

Cristina Sala is Senior Research Associate at the School of International Development, University of East Anglia, UK. Her research interests include decolonising peace(building), gender and environmental peace(building), and transformative/decolonial/feminist methodologies. She specializes on transdisciplinary research.