The vital role of victims and their organisations in peacebuilding

Victims are at the centre, not only of the 2016 Peace Agreement, but also of the Fund’s actions. Strengthening their capacities and
reducing the barriers they and their organisations face in accessing processes that both acknowledge their experiences of the conflict
and enable their participation in territorial transformation, are fundamental priorities in the Fund’s investments.

PDET municipalities and victims have a voice in Congress

Initiative supported by:
Peace building fund
Particularly in 2024, the Fund supported the 16 Special Transitional Peace Constituencies, or peace seats, which are a mechanism created under point 2.3.6 of the Peace Agreement to promote the political representation of populations and areas affected by the conflict.[1] In order to achieve this, with the support of the UNDP and OHCHR,1,600 social leaders received qualifications to help improve their impact capacity, 1,123 women were trained in political rights and participation, and 304 victims’ and civil society organisations were provided with support and consultancy on legislative matters. Furthermore, 17 dialogue and impact spaces were promoted with victims’ organisations, as well as an ethnically focused dialogue and impact space with the participation of 370 Nukak indigenous people, which led to 16 proposals being delivered to the representatives of the peace seats. At the same time, the 16 representatives of the peace seats were supported in the drafting and submission of eight bills that were developed and presented to Congress, as follows:
In addition, 75 proposals were submitted concerning issues related to affirmative action for rural women within the Legislative Act on Agrarian Jurisdiction, the Tax Reform, the General National Budget, the General Royalties Budget, as well as the bills for the Kangaroo Mother Care programme, the Rural Youth bill, and the Rural and Farming Women bill.

Lessons Learned

  1. To support the Peace Councils in some municipalities, the victim participation roundtables were not active. Some of them were reactivated in Antioquia (Mutatá, Apartadó, Turbo, San Carlos, San Luis, San Francisco, Granada, Cocorná, Dabeiba, and Ituango). However, it is essential to consider virtual, digital, and asynchronous activities due to the high dispersion of victims in rural areas. Greater participation is encouraged when victims are grouped in networks or platforms that include grassroots organizations, and it is these networks that channel demands and participation and bring them to the victim participation roundtable.
  2. The spaces for participation won by Indigenous women must be appropriated and standardized throughout the community, as well as by the governance bodies of Indigenous reservations like the Nukak, where the majority are men, so that the spaces won by women are not lost when the intervention ends.
The spaces for participation won by Indigenous women must be appropriated and standardized throughout the community, as well as by the governance bodies of Indigenous reservations like the Nukak, where the majority are men, so that the spaces won by women are not lost when the intervention ends.

[1] Interview with Luis Ramiro Ricardo Buelva, representative of the peace seat for the Montes de María constituency, highlighting the importance of victims’ participation in bills aimed at their recognition and efforts to reduce the gaps resulting from the impact of the conflict.

Interview with Luis Ramiro Ricardo Buelva, representative of the Peace Council for the Montes de María district, who highlights the importance of victims’ participation in bills promoting their recognition and working to reduce the gaps resulting from the impact of the conflict.

The voices of communities on progress and challenges with implementation

In 2024, the third round of measurement of the Monitoring Attitudes, Perceptions, and Support for Peace in Colombia Survey (MAPS) was completed. On this occasion, 11,820 residents of PDET municipalities were surveyed, achieving a 60% re-contact rate with individuals who had participated in previous rounds.

The Fund has supported all three rounds of the survey—in 2019, 2021, and 2024—which have provided valuable data on public
perceptions regarding the progress and challenges of implementing the Peace Agreement in 72 PDET municipalities across the 16
PATR subregions, as well as in an urban survey conducted in five major cities: Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, and Bucaramanga,
gathering the views of over 1,172 people.
Below are some of the most representative results from the survey, along with comparisons to previous years.

This survey has also enabled the Fund to use the results as a means of measuring the perception indicators included in its results framework, as it successfully incorporated questions related to the perceptions of communities in PDET municipalities that have benefited from the Fund’s investments.

They took them alive; we want them back alive4

On the other hand, the role of victims’ organisations made up of relatives of disappeared people has been vital in advancing the Regional Search Plans (PRBs, for their Spanish acronym), a tool that the Unit for the Search of Persons Reported as Disappeared (UBPD, for its Spanish acronym) has been developing in the territories alongside searching relatives and victims’ organisations. These plans make it possible to structure the search based on a specific area or region, a population group, a specific time period, possible places of disposal, and other variables specific to each search plan.2

For this reason, in 2024 the Fund prioritised investments to promote coordinated efforts between searching organisations and the
UBPD, through a call for proposals in which 28 civil society organisations (CSOs) worked across 13 departments: Antioquia, Arauca,
Bolívar, Boyacá, Casanare, Cesar, Córdoba, Norte de Santander, Meta, Santander, Sucre, Tolima, and Valle del Cauca.

Their contributions were essential for the UBPD to make progress in implementing the PRBs and their operational plans, through educational activities, the documentation of new cases to help address underreporting, and the identification of sites or locations of forensic interest that feed into the National Registry of Graves, Illegal Cemeteries, and Burial Sites. On that first point, educational activities helped to increase families’ understanding of the PRBs, the work of the UBPD, and to broaden their participation thanks to the trust fostered by the efforts of the CSOs from those same territories. This was demonstrated by:
These educational efforts also help to mitigate the underreporting of documented cases of persons reported missing. In particular, in 2024, CSOs managed to present 925 cases to the Unit: 34 in Arauca, 12 in Casanare and Boyacá, 250 in Magdalena Medio, 104 in Norte de Santander, 45 in Urabá, 29 in Eastern Antioquia, and 4 from LGBTIQ+ individuals (2 from Medellín and 2 from Barrancabermeja), 328 in Meta, Cesar, Córdoba, Montes de María (Sucre and Bolívar), Tolima and Santander; and 119 in Valle del Cauca. At the same time, 1,713 searchers received individual and family psychosocial support with a gender approach.

Finally, regarding their contribution to the National Registry of Graves, Illegal Cemeteries and Burial Sites, these organisations delivered 67 new locations of forensic interest to the UBPD in Arauca, Eastern Antioquia and Urabá Antioqueño, Casanare, Boyacá, Norte de Santander, and Valle del Cauca. This was achieved through the development of 20 maps and georeferencing efforts for the identification of burial sites, carried out through training sessions and participatory research meetings held in Antioquia, Magdalena Medio, Meta, Norte de Santander, and Sucre.

 

At the close of this call for proposals, the organisations put forward a series of recommendations to the institutions involved in the National Search System and to international cooperation actors, which contribute significantly to improving search processes, enhancing coordination in the territories, and validating the capacities and progress made by these organisations on the ground. This, in turn, increases the chances of upholding the rights of victims to know the truth, to find their relatives, and to bring closure to the suffering that this atrocious phenomenon has caused for more than 600,000 family members of persons reported missing in Colombia.

Strategic products generated that contribute to decision-making in favour of victims of the conflict
  • Recommendations from victims’ organisations to improve PRB and SNB processes in the territories and on a national level.
  • Mujeres Buscadoras documentaries
  • MAPS report 2024