“Sí, su Señoría, acepto la responsabilidad” : A study on justice, reintegration, reconciliation and paramilitaries postulated to the Justice and Peace Law.

Abstract

This study analyses the link between DDR, transitional justice and reconciliation in the context of the peace process of the Colombian government with paramilitary groups. Peace negotiations between the government and leaders of the paramilitary organization AUC led in July 2003 to the Santa Fé de Ralito Accord, the first step to the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of the paramilitaries. In 2005, the government passed Law 975, better known as the Justice and Peace Law, which seeks to prevent large-scale impunity through the prosecution of combatants responsible for excessive human right violations. Furthermore, it serves as a judicial framework for the reintegration of the not prosecuted demobilised combatants. Certain achievements have definitely been made in Colombia since the demobilisations of paramilitary groups and the coming into existence of the Justice and Peace Law. Yet the participants of the process of Justice and Peace experience many obstacles and uncertainties. Furthermore, still warring armed groups combined with common criminals and drug traffickers seriously threaten not only the outcomes of these processes but also the lives of its participants.