Porticus supports the work of the Truth Commission in Colombia
After an agonizing 58 years of armed conflict in Colombia, this summer saw the delivery of the final stages of the work of the Truth Commission (2018-2022), which has been supported by Porticus since 2016. The conflict started in 1964 between the government, paramilitary groups, crime syndicates and far-left guerrilla groups, all fighting for influence in the region.
The peace process itself had its first big step forward in 2016 with a hard-won peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). And while pockets of fighting still persist, and the underlying problems that started the conflict still need to be fully resolved, the last six years of work has created real hope that Colombia can finally move forward, out of the shadow of violence.
Another milestone of the peace process was an 800 page report, published in June 2022 by the country’s Truth Commission. It details, through thousands of hours of interviews with victims, ex-combatants and public officials, many of the crimes and human rights abuses that have occurred across the last six decades.
“The list is endless… the pain is immense,” said Father Francisco de Roux, the head of the Truth Commission, during the presentation of the report.
It’s estimated that Colombia has 9 million victims of the struggle, including 450,000 homicides and 100,000 disappearances, alongside the displacement of as many as 5 million people. The civilian population has been particularly brutalised, with 80% of the death toll being ordinary civilians.
The ongoing conflict has crippled the economic and social fabric of Colombia, which today has a poverty rate of over 39% and the highest inequality rates of all the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Porticus’ Support
Porticus' cooperation in Colombia dates back to 2004 and it has played an integral part in the peace process since then, supporting breakthroughs such as the peace agreement and the delivery of the final report. Since 2016, Porticus has directed support to more than 85 interconnected initiatives, across three key areas. The first is the Programa Nacional de Educación para la Paz, also known as Educapaz, a multi-partner project aimed at promoting peace education opportunities for primary and lower secondary students in rural schools located in regions deeply affected by armed conflict. The second is La Vida Querida Program, which empowers rural communities for peace and development, and builds respect for natural resources. The third is to support the Truth Commission’s cooperation with civil society as part of the Truth and Peace Program in Colombia.
This multi-facetted involvement has helped Porticus understand how to better approach and design strategic interventions, working alongside the Church, government and transitional justice apparatus. It has been a complex process, particularly focused on helping vulnerable sectors of Colombian society – often in rural and low-income areas – so they too can participate in the peace and reap tangible benefits.
Father Francisco de Roux noted: “Porticus has helped us to strengthen the different organizations in Colombia to position what we call 'the happening of the truth' or 'the truth event'.”
Impactful Initiatives
A good example of Porticus’s involvement is Escuelas de Palabra, a work stream within Educapaz to facilitate school-based activities to promote student engagement in discussing the right to historical truth as a value. This has allowed boys and girls to share and recognise the effects of the conflict on their communities. Another example is Historias en Kilómetros, a scheme to support community-based audio-visual production teams to tell their own stories, which Porticus has supported both financially and through methodology and logistics.
Many of these initiatives have faced difficulties, as Porticus programme manager Carolina Beghelli explains: “We have helped set the ground for systemic change with grassroots innovations at a time when it was very hard to keep on working. We had a lot of things going against our work in Colombia, but we have sustained these relationships and have nurtured the process that is now flowering.”
Porticus’ continued work aims to assist with the long-term building of peace by addressing the root causes of the conflict, as well as to implement the final report’s recommendations to ensure that a brighter future for the people of Colombia is possible.