Monitoring the peace process in Colombia

In January 2018, Justice for Colombia launched the JFC Peace Monitor with the objective of facilitating international accompaniment to monitor the implementation of the peace agreement signed between the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP in November 2016.

In April I was fortunate enough to join a delegation of parliamentarians from Britain and Ireland and international trade union leaders to document the trip, which included meetings with Colombian politicians, FARC leadership, trade union leaders and victims of the armed conflict.

We spent 5 days on a busy schedule travelling across Colombia to hear the testimonies of victims and family members of victims and to meet with local officials and FARC members in some of the historically most conflict-ridden areas of the country.

The objective of the delegation is to mobilise international support to ensure the peace process is implemented as it was agreed and to visibilise the human rights abuses that are still occurring in the rural communities which are in a transitional period.