‘Territory is Everything’: Afro-Colombian Communities, Human Rights and Illegal Land Grabs (2020)
4 HRLR Online 290 (May 2020)
This article explores the plight of rural Afro-Colombian women who are battling multiple forms of discrimination, including discrimination based on race and gender, as they fight for their land rights against land occupations and state development plans. Nevertheless, Afro-Colombian women are at the vanguard of land rights advocacy in Colombia. This article documents their struggle for vindication.
Making Rights a Reality: Access to Health Care for Afro-Colombian Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (2020)
51 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 670
This essay discusses the failure of the Colombian government to fully implement the 2016 peace accord’s protections against gender violence and to rectify disparities in the availability, accessibility, and quality of women’s health services throughout Colombia.
Gender Violence Against Afro-Colombian Women: Making the Promise of International Human Rights Law Real (2020)
4 HRLR Online 249
This essay highlights the ongoing issue of gender violence in Colombia – particularly affecting Afro-descendant and Indigenous women and their communities – despite the inclusion of racial and gender justice provisions in the 2016 peace accord with the FARC.
In the Crosshairs: Centering Local Responses to SGBV in Afro-Colombian Communities (2020)
4 HRLR Online 268
This essay discusses the demobilization of the FARC in Colombia and how it led to a power struggle among various forces, leaving Afro-Colombian areas vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) from multiple actors.
Understanding Threats Against Afro-descendant Women Human Rights Defenders: Re-envisioning Security (2020)
4 HRLR Online 336
This essay discusses Colombia’s high rate of assassinations of human rights defenders, with women defending Afro-descendant and Indigenous territories particularly at risk.
Third Party at the Table: Afro-Colombian Women’s Struggle for Peace and the Inclusion of a Racial-Gender Justice Analysis in Colombia’s Peace Process (2020)
4 HRLR Online 324
This article discusses how conservative politicians and evangelical religious leaders in Colombia used the concept of “gender ideology” to strip the 2016 Peace Accord of its provisions protecting the rights of women, Afro-Colombians, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTIQ, and non-binary and gender non-conforming persons. It also discusses how the harbinger of conservative opposition to human rights viewed justice for these groups as a threat to their grip on power and argues for the necessity of leadership from Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities in the implementation process.
Introduction: Afro-Colombian Voices in the Colombian Peace Process (2020)
4 HRLR Online
This essay discusses how a group of Afro-Colombian women’s rights activists and New York law professors came together to raise awareness of Afro-Colombian voices in the Colombian peace process.
Perspectives on Gender Persecution: Colombia’s Transitional Justice Process (June 23, 2023)
Just Security Online Forum on Gender Persecution Policy Series
This post discusses how the ICC Office of the Prosecutor’s Policy on the Crime of Gender Persecution interacts with domestic justice processes by examining the example of the transitional justice process in Colombia.
The ICC’s 2022 Gender Persecution Policy in Context: An Important Next Step Forward (June 1, 2023)
Just Security Online Forum on Gender Persecution Policy Series
This post discusses how a successfully implemented Gender Persecution Policy can lead toward higher numbers of convictions of sexual and gender-based violence crimes, including the crime of gender persecution. In addition, the post explores how the Policy may ensure that the ICC Office of the Prosecutor’s focus remains on the prosecution of gender persecution.
Gender Persecution: Why Labels Matter (May 31, 2023)
Just Security Online Forum on Gender Persecution Policy Series
This post discusses the signs of a growing commitment to addressing gender as a discriminatory driver of violence and atrocity and why the international community now has an important opportunity to overcome historical silences and strengthen responses to gender persecution.