Truth on the Margins: Bringing Memories to Support Transitional Justice in Colombia

The implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement in Colombia has suffered setbacks during the last two years. Our project partners in MEMPAZ have witnessed rising levels of violence and insecurity.

The Truth Commission (TC, running 2018-21) is one of the strongest pillars of the processes of truth, recognition, justice and non-repetition at the heart of the Peace Agreement. Despite funding cuts and other disruptions, the TC is committed to producing an inclusive report of the horrors of war. This will be published in late 2021.

Through MEMPAZ we have been privileged to work directly with its Gender and Pedagogy Working Groups, designing methodologies, collecting testimonies and supporting work with teachers and students. TOJEM will take advantage of a unique moment to support the Truth Commission and the other institutions of transitional justice to produce national recognition and international support for their work.

We will work with our project partners, each of whom have produced creative memory pieces, to disseminate their work in film, text and through public meetings so that it reaches wider publics and changes minds about the past (and ongoing) horrors so as to transform the future. TOJEM provides a new opportunity to seek impact at different scales, including nationally and internationally.

It has been designed in collaboration with our colleagues at the National University of Colombia and the Truth Commission to reduce violence in the future, to bring about inclusive reconciliation and to reduce inequalities.