On 4 March 2020, the Appeals Chamber of the Peace Tribunal of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) issued order TP-SA 502 of 2020, following an appeal filed by one of the Five Keys organisations.(1)against a decision of the Chamber for the Recognition of Truth, Responsibility and Conduct (SRVR) in which it denied the accreditation of a woman as a special intervener as a victim in Case 005 "Territorial Situation in the region of Northern Cauca and Southern Valle del Cauca" who was a victim of sexual violence by an armed group as a child between 1985 and 1986 by FARC-EP guerrillas, arguing a temporal criterion. The Peace Tribunal upheld the decision.

Notwithstanding the above, this collegiate body emphasised that the lack of accreditation of a victim within the framework of a prioritised case does not exclude per se to the same of the Jurisdiction nor of the other entities of the SIVJRNR, or the reparation and non-repetition measures to which she is entitled in accordance with Law 1448 of 2011 and the Final Peace Agreement (AFP). On the contrary, the Court noted that the serious events of which the woman was a victim "exemplify the particular situation of vulnerability and exclusion in which many girls and women in rural areas of our country remained", which led the Court to add the decision requesting the SRVR to open a case concerning sexual violence during the armed conflict, and if this decision was positive, it ordered the inclusion of the applicant woman so that her rights would be guaranteed.

In this regard, the Appeals Chamber issued a judicial motion for the opening of a case on sexual violence during non-international armed conflict with a view to encouraging early contributions to truth, restorative justice, reparation and non-repetition of the victims, taking into account the multiple reports that have been presented to the SJP on acts of sexual violence by different organisations and victims' collectives, including the Five Keys Alliance. This motion was based on the multiple reports presented by civil society organisations in relation to this serious violation of human rights, as well as the need to establish the dynamics of systematisation of these acts and those most responsible, which would allow for the effective guarantee of what was agreed in the PFA for the victims. According to the JEP, 40% of the reports submitted so far contain accounts of sexual violence.

From our platform we express our support for the judicial motion of the Peace Tribunal of the JEP and we reiterate the request for the opening of an national case of sexual violence, reproductive violence and other crimes motivated by the sexuality of the victim committed in the context of the armed conflictThe aim is to ensure the realisation of the rights to justice, the clarification of the truth, comprehensive reparation and guarantees of non-repetition for the victims in the framework of transitional justice, as well as the punishment of those most responsible. Neither temporal, territorial nor age criteria of the current prioritised cases can exclude the accreditation of victims of these types of violence. For example, case 007 investigates reproductive violence - forced abortions and forced contraception - but only covers minors who are victims of illicit recruitment, leaving out adult women. A national case such as the one we have requested would prevent impunity in these cases.

On 20 February 2020, the organisations that make up the Alliance submitted to the SJP the document entitled "Connection between sexual violence and the armed conflict: a call for non-retrogression in the Special Jurisdiction for Peace", which we hope will form part of the guidelines for determining the various forms of violence motivated by discrimination based on gender and sexuality of the victims that occurred in the context of the armed conflict and which must be investigated and punished as serious violations of the rights of women and LGBT people.

Further information
Sonia Mesa
Women's Link Worldwide
s.mesa@womenslinkworldwide.org
Tel: +57 3002648634

1

Alianza Cinco Claves para el tratamiento diferencial de la violencia sexual contra las mujeres y niñas víctimas de la violencia sexual en el Acuerdo Final de Paz, formed by Colombia Diversa, Corporación Humanas, Corporación Sisma Mujer, Women's Link Worldwide and the Red Nacional de Mujeres.