Creating Structures for Peace and Justice: Experiences from Colombia and Beyond
In the face of decades of internal armed conflict, Colombia has developed an extensive repertoire of initiatives that promote peaceful civic engagement for conflict resolution. These include justices of the peace, networks of community mediators, equity conciliators, and a newly established regional reconciliation commission. Each of these mechanisms face particular challenges regarding unclear roles or overlapping jurisdictional responsibilities, insufficient or ineffective institutional coordination, or lack of sustainable support. Representatives of Partners’ new Center in Colombia, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Due Process of Law Foundation hosted a roundtable discussion about mechanisms for creating greater access to justice at the community level. Discussion explored these and other experiences of community dispute resolution, as well as the challenges community justice mechanisms face and how they have been addressed.
Panelists:
Oscar Gaitan, Director, Partners-Colombia
Before becoming the Director of Partners Colombia, Mr. Gaitan served as Director of the European Commission’s Justice Project, where he coordinated a national effort to support community dispute resolution mechanisms and reforms to the criminal justice system in Colombia. He is an attorney and expert in community mediation, arbitration and NGO law, and has extensive experience as a trainer and university professor. Mr. Gaitan is one of the founders and the original Executive Director of the Corporación Razón Pública, and worked previously as an expert on Access to Justice issues for the Corporación Excelencia en la Justicia, and also for the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá Center for Conciliation and Arbitration.
DPLF's former Programs Director, Katya Salazar joined DPLF in January 2004 after serving as deputy director of the Special Investigations Unit of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where she was in charge of investigations into human rights violations that occurred during that country’s armed internal conflict. She previously worked as a lawyer/researcher for the Human Rights Division of the Office of the Peruvian Human Rights Ombudsman (1998–2000), as a lawyer/researcher for the Coalition against Impunity (Nuremburg, Germany, 1997–1998), and as a lawyer for the Instituto de Defensa Legal (Lima, Peru, 1993–1996). Ms. Salazar, a Peruvian national, studied law at the Catholic University of Peru and earned her master's degree in German and International Public Law (2001–2002) at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. In 1997, she was a legal fellow with the International Human Rights Law Group (now Global Rights), a non-governmental organization in Washington, D.C. She has written numerous article on the criminal prosecution of past crimes and judicial reforms, and has lectured on these topics in various countries.
David Smith, Senior Program Officer, Education and Training Center, USIP
David J. Smith is a senior program officer in USIP's Education and Training Center, Domestic Programs, where he focuses on secondary and higher education efforts in promoting peacebuilding and conflict resolution. He has primary responsibility for issues related to youth and violent conflict. Smith coordinates the Institute's programs for college and university faculty and secondary social studies teachers. He speaks frequently to community, faculty and student groups on a variety of issues including civil society and peace, child soldiers, conflict resolution, and international education.
His experience before joining the Institute in 2005 focused on teaching at the college and university level. He has also worked in the fields of domestic and community conflict resolution, and as a practicing attorney. From 1992-2005 he taught legal studies, and peace and conflict studies at Harford Community College. As a Fulbright Scholar in 2003–04, Smith taught peace studies and alternative dispute resolution at the University of Tartu in Tartu, Estonia. He has also taught peace studies at Goucher College, was on the faculties of Towson University and Stevenson University, and has lectured on American mediator practice at Uppsala University in Sweden and the University of Jammu in India.
Smith holds a B.A. in political science and urban affairs from the American University School of Public Affairs, an M.S. from the George Mason University Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and a J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law.
Ricardo Esquivia, Coordinator, ASVIDAS
Ricardo Esquivia is a leader in the development of peace initiatives, including the Citizen's Regional Reconciliation Commission on Colombia's Caribbean coast. He is the General Coordinator of the ASVIDAS network of Montes de Maria and Sincelejo, an organization of 130 local community groups working in the Colombian provinces of Bolivar, Sucre, Cordoba and the Caribbean coast, that has 2,500 members and a team of 30 volunteer facilitators and is dedicated to accompaniment and development of sustainable peace efforts. He is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation Network for Development and Peace in Montes de Maria (Consejo Directivo de la Fundacion Red de Desarrollo y Paz para Montes de Maria), executive director of the Asociacion Sembrando Semillas de Paz with headquarters in Sincelejo. Member of the Mennonite Church, he is Coordinator of the Commission of Peace of the Colombian Council of Evangelical Churches, and a member of the National Peace Council advising the President of the Republic.
Moderator:
Virginia Bouvier, Senior Program Officer, Grant and Fellowships Program, USIP
Virginia M. Bouvier joined USIP in January 2003 as a program officer for the Jennings Randolph Fellowship program. She is currently a senior program officer in the Grants and Fellowships program. For the previous seven years, she was an assistant professor of Latin American literature and culture at the University of Maryland. From 1982 to 1989, Bouvier served as senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America, where she focused on Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Bouvier has also served as a consultant and research director for the Women’s Leadership Conference of the Americas, a joint project of the Inter-American Dialogue and the International Center for Research on Women, and as a consultant at the World Bank, Levi Strauss Foundation, Levi Strauss and Co. and the C.S. Fund. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in Latin American studies.
Preparatory Documents:
Hedeen, Timothy. "The Evolution and Evaluation of Community Mediation: Limited Research Suggested Unlimited Progress." Conflict Resolution Quarterly. Vol. 22, no. 1-2: Fall-Winter, 2004. Link: The Evolution and Evaluation of Community Mediation
"What is Restorative Practices?" International Institute for Restorative Practices. Link: What Is Restorative Practice
"When Legal Worlds Overlap: Human Rights, State and Non-state Law." International Council on Human Rights Policy. Link: When Legal Worlds Overlap
"Obstáculos para el Acceso a la justicia en las Americas" (Spanish) Due Process of Law Foundation. Link: Obstáculos para el Acceso a la Justicia en las Américas
"Informe sobre Acceso a la Justicia OEA" (Spanish) Organization of American States. Link: Informe sobre Acceso a la Justicia OEA
