CAL is excited to introduce our newest staff attorney, Tatiana Devia. In this introductory blog, Tatiana discusses CAL’s work related to Transitional Justice in Colombia, and how the Colombian armed conflict has played a role in her own story. You can reach Tatiana by email at tatiana.devia@corpaccountabilitylab.org.
The world’s most ambitious and holistic transitional justice system was implemented after Colombia’s landmark 2016 Peace Accords. Expert advisors, along with survivors, civil society, and communities affected by the conflict played a major role in developing the system’s architecture. Now, Colombian stakeholders and the international community closely monitor the mechanisms established in this transitional society.
Tatiana Devia, CAL Staff Attorney
Despite its comprehensive approach, this system struggles with a narrow, yet crucial issue: accountability for economic actors who perpetuated the conflict, either by financing illegal armed actors, benefiting from the conflict, or abetting human rights violations such as forced displacement, executions, torture, and crimes against humanity. These so-called “third-party actors” (a label given to civilian parties that were not part of illegal armed groups) often fall outside the jurisdiction of the specialized courts created to handle post-conflict adjudication. Addressing corporate accountability in a transitional society is complex, but Colombia offers an important opportunity to improve accountability mechanisms, test boundaries, and design strategies for a broader inclusion of economic actors.
Within this context, CAL is working with partner organizations to hold corporate actors accountable in the transitional justice environment. The project is a multi-faceted approach designed to analyze the role of economic actors in transitional legal frameworks, push for the inclusion of corporate actors in the Colombian transitional mechanisms, create spaces to develop parallel accountability mechanisms with a restorative justice focus, and design replicable strategies to be implemented in other transitional societies.
Today, I am incredibly proud to introduce this innovative project, which dovetails with my own story. Nineteen years ago, I left Colombia as a fourteen-year old middle school student. I thought I would go back to my country, my family, and my friends within six months, but it took almost 10 years to make it back. What I did not understand then was that my mom was forced to leave Colombia as a consequence of her political activism. Her work was closely tied to her leadership position in Colombia’s Liberal Party, one of the leading political parties at the time. She knew her involvement in political campaigns in Bogotá and Guaviare was dangerous due to the armed conflict. After all, my late grandfather, a former congressman, had been kidnapped by a guerrilla group that kept him in the Colombian jungle for several days. He was later released; unharmed. My family was familiar with the risks.
Back then, thousands of people with ties to journalism, social activism and politics were threatened or silenced through the use of violence. Ironically, it was not her political views that led to the threats. Rather, it was her passionate speeches on women’s rights, human rights and international humanitarian law that culminated in threatening messages targeting our family. On March 8th, 2000, International Women’s Day, my mom was awarded a prestigious official award for her activism and contributions to the Liberal Party. She was on her way to becoming a key leader within her own party. But less than a year later, we left Colombia with only three pieces of luggage. The threats were becoming too serious.
Shortly after our departure we gained political asylum in the United States and became part of a community of political exiles. This abrupt change gradually increased my yearning for understanding and exploring the Colombian armed conflict. This guided my career interests and now as CAL’s staff attorney, I am excited to work on this project while working with a wonderful team. Below, I provide a short background on the armed conflict, an overview of the project and our partners, and discuss the impact of the pandemic on this work.
Background
The Colombian Armed Conflict and the Role of Transitional Justice
Since the 1950’s, political and violent clashes between Colombia’s left-wing guerrillas, mainly the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC); right-wing paramilitary groups, particularly the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC); and official security forces resulted in countless gross human rights violations. The complexity of the conflict was further exacerbated by the role played by third parties, including economic and political actors. In this context, Colombia began a peace process in 2016, which culminated in the current transitional justice system that established a Truth Commission (CEV), the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), and the Special Unit to locate disappeared victims.
Economic Actors in the Colombian Transitional Justice System
Past transitional legal frameworks provided a wealth of information on the role of corporate actors in the Colombian armed conflict. However, they did not provide a meaningful path for accountability. For example, the 2005 Justice and Peace Law, which resulted in the demobilization of thousands of AUC paramilitaries, failed to systematize and address thousands of references implicating economic actors in the armed conflict. The current transitional process originally offered a route to address corporate accountability through the JEP, but later the Constitutional Court determined that such mandatory jurisdiction over third-party actors would be a due-process violation. As a result, economic actors are subject to the JEP’s jurisdiction only if they voluntarily submit to it.
It is within this transitional legal framework that CAL developed a project designed to generate the space and the tools to develop accountability frameworks for the inclusion of economic actors, including both individuals and legal entities, and to contribute to the body of research and practice on a global scale.
The Project
The Colombian context offers a unique opportunity to examine the role of corporate actors in the armed conflict, while using an ongoing transitional environment to push boundaries and build restorative justice mechanisms. This project uses a multi-layered approach to designing methods of corporate inclusion in a transitional society.
Push the Boundaries of the Colombian Transitional Justice Process
To date, the treatment of economic actors within the transitional justice system remains ambiguous. Although several economic actors voluntarily submitted their cases to the JEP and the CEV received large amounts of evidence of corporate involvement in atrocities, it is unclear how this material will be processed and documented despite limitations on their mandates. Several questions remain unanswered as the timing constraints become more evident. One of the purposes of the project is to push the boundaries of the Colombian transitional process and its related bodies to ensure the inclusion of individual economic actors. In collaboration with our partners, CAL will facilitate technical support and advocacy in connection to the cases and evidence handled by the transitional justice mechanisms. The project will also create spaces to bring together several groups of stakeholders to discuss identified challenges and creatively design solutions.
Complementary and Parallel Restorative Justice Mechanisms
Simultaneously, the project will develop complementary and parallel accountability strategies for economic actors to provide restorative justice to victims of corporate abuse. CAL is facilitating a space where attorneys, advocates and communities come together to design models of restorative justice - including alternative sentences for economic actors - to fill the gaps present in the current transitional justice environment. We will work with our partners and communities to identify, develop and apply such models while enhancing the inclusion of corporate actors in the processes of truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence.
Test Methods of Corporate Inclusion in Post-Conflict Contexts
CAL’s design thinking strategies contribute to a key component of the project, the experimentation with and development of replicable methods of corporate accountability and inclusion. CAL is currently creating the space to develop and test promising models to fill in the void where formal inclusion in the transitional justice mechanism is not viable. CAL is also working to conceptualize the ecosystems of corporate actors that exacerbated the armed conflict or benefited from it. This component contributes to the understanding of the complex schemes that perpetuate corporate impunity and to identify individual and legal entity liability.
Analysis of the role of economic actors in transitional justice in Colombia, and beyond
The project creates a vehicle for connecting these components to strengthen our understanding of this area of corporate accountability while amplifying its impact. Within these frameworks, CAL is analyzing and documenting in detail the practices and official procedures utilized in the Colombian transitional mechanisms with the goal of identifying successful strategies, failures, challenges and obstructions in the transitional justice system.
In connection to these project components, we are developing a one-of-a-kind global forum, the South-South Network, to bring together individuals and organizations working in the field of corporate accountability in transitional justice. The Network will provide the space and legal environment to share experiences, knowledge and legal strategies used to address economic actor accountability in post-conflict contexts. CAL plans to contribute to transitional justice theory and practice by using the lessons learned to advance the conversation on the role of economic actors on a global scale.
Our partners and network
The success of this program depends on the partnerships CAL has developed in Colombia. We are collaborating with two impressive Colombian organizations working in the field of transitional justice, corporate accountability and victim advocacy, Dejusticia and the Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz. In addition, CAL is relying on its network to bring together key members to our South-South Network to guarantee a global and diverse space.
But what about the current global crisis?
We are rapidly adapting to the current global crisis. As a team, we are finding different ways to continue our progress with this project while modifying some activities. The JEP and CEV shared with the public that their remote work is providing the time and space to write, research, compare case files, and systematize information. In the same manner, CAL is pausing some elements of the project while intensifying research and network development efforts. Our work continues while also acknowledging the collective and personal impact the pandemic has on all of us.
As we move forward, we look forward to using the power of legal design to create innovative legal strategies, build our networks, and promote corporate accountability in Colombia, and beyond. We can’t do this essential work in Colombia alone. Join us.
Tatiana Devia is a staff attorney with Corporate Accountability Lab.
