Evaluating the Colombian Special Jurisdiction for Peace

Evaluating the Colombian Special Jurisdiction for Peace

The Power and Limits of Judicial-Based Truth

von Elvira-Maria Restrepo

This book examines one of the deepest paradoxes of Colombia’s transition: how a peace agreement and its most innovative institution, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP), came to divide the nation so profoundly, even as international institutions and experts hailed it as a pioneering model of transitional justice. Part 1 provides historical context for Colombia’s long search for peace, the creation of the SJP, and explains why it generated fear, anger, and political backlash across broad sectors of society. Part 2 centres on the nearly 9 million victims who have borne the gravest consequences of the conflict, through an in-depth analysis of two major SJP macro-cases involving all principal conflict actors. Part 3 examines both the transformative power and the jurisdictional limits of the SJP, especially its uneven capacity to reach the full range of actors implicated in the conflict. The book ultimately asks whether the SJP’s attempt to construct a comprehensive judicial truth can do more than illuminate the past: can it also help narrow the moral and political divide between victims and sectors of the elites that benefited, directly or indirectly, from the conflict? Drawing on extensive fieldwork, interviews, primary sources, media, social media, local knowledge, and first-hand observation, this book offers a critical and original account of the SJP as one of the most ambitious efforts anywhere to reinvent justice after mass atrocity.

This book examines one of the deepest paradoxes of Colombia’s transition: how a peace agreement and its most innovative institution, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP), came to divide the nation so profoundly, even as international institutions and experts hailed it as a pioneering model of transitional justice. Part 1 provides historical context for Colombia’s long search for peace, the creation of the SJP, and explains why it generated fear, anger, and political backlash across broad sectors of society. Part 2 centres on the nearly 9 million victims who have borne the gravest consequences of the conflict, through an in-depth analysis of two major SJP macro-cases involving all principal conflict actors. Part 3 examines both the transformative power and the jurisdictional limits of the SJP, especially its uneven capacity to reach the full range of actors implicated in the conflict. The book ultimately asks whether the SJP’s attempt to construct a comprehensive judicial truth can do more than illuminate the past: can it also help narrow the moral and political divide between victims and sectors of the elites that benefited, directly or indirectly, from the conflict? Drawing on extensive fieldwork, interviews, primary sources, media, social media, local knowledge, and first-hand observation, this book offers a critical and original account of the SJP as one of the most ambitious efforts anywhere to reinvent justice after mass atrocity.

Elvira María Restrepo is Associate Professor of International Studies at George Washington University, USA. She has a PhD in Politics from Oxford University, an LLM from Harvard Law School and a JD from the Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá.

Highlights

• Offers valuable insights into the theory and practice of transitional justice Explores the SJP's innovative approach to accountability and the adjudication of war crimes and crimes against humanity Discusses key themes which are relevant for many nations dealing with the aftermath of conflict and the pursuit of peace

Über den Autor

Elvira María Restrepo is Associate Professor of International Studies at George Washington University, USA. She has a PhD in Politics from Oxford University, an LLM from Harvard Law School and a JD from the Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá.