The SJP decided on the rights of victims of sexual, reproductive and gender-based violence without a gender perspective.

The SJP decided on the rights of victims of sexual, reproductive and gender-based violence without a gender perspective.

The Five Keys Alliance for the differential treatment of sexual violence, in the framework of the Final Peace Agreement, in the development of its actions to monitor the protection of the rights of women, girls and LGBT people who are victims of sexual and reproductive violence and other violence motivated by sexuality, in the context of the armed conflict, through the following public statement we call on the Special Jurisdiction for Peace to incorporate a gender perspective in the different phases of the transitional judicial process that it is carrying out. Specifically, this request arises from the review of Auto 019 of 2021 of the Chamber for the Recognition of Truth, Responsibility and Determination of Facts and Conduct in which we identify several problematic aspects.

Firstly, Cinco Claves is concerned about the absence of a gender focus in the determination of the facts of the deprivation of liberty and the responsibility of eight members of the FARC Secretariat. We note that the aforementioned Order demonstrates that the judicial investigation of what happened in the armed conflict is being carried out without identifying and analysing how unequal gender relations, which were exacerbated in that context, determined the crimes against women and LGBT people and caused differential harm.

Secondly, we consider that the SJP's decision contains socio-cultural stereotypes of judicial discrimination in that it omits gender analysis in cases of sexual violence, leaves aside reproductive violence and violence due to prejudice against LGBT people, naturalises serious acts of sexual violence and dismisses the existence of a pattern in this area, all of which constitutes a step backwards that threatens to reinforce impunity for these crimes.

Thirdly, the sexual orientation or gender identity of the abducted persons is not identified, not even for those who claim to have been victims of sexual violence during captivity. This eliminates the possibility of identifying acts of violence due to prejudice and makes it impossible to identify acts of sexualised violence. In the same vein, the Court did not identify the systematicity of this violence, which really comes from a heteropatriarchal script in which feminised bodies (trans women, gay men, cisgender women) are seen as territory to be conquered, as bodies to be violated and recipients of abject desires, and as territory in which compulsory heterosexuality must be imposed.

Fourthly, the SJP's Order does not explain what strategies it took to overcome the high under-reporting that is known to exist in cases of sexual, reproductive and bias-related violence, unlike what it did with deprivations of liberty. Without an intentional strategy that, from the outset, seeks to overcome this under-reporting, it should not be concluded, as the SJP does, that these acts of violence were isolated events, as this may not reflect reality. In view of the under-reporting, it is also worrying that the SJP, contrary to international standards and what it says, has applied a purely numerical criterion to conclude that these acts of violence were isolated.

Finally, and in response to these concerns, we insist on the request for the opening of the national case of sexual and reproductive violence and other crimes motivated by the sexuality of the victim, presented by Cinco Claves on 20 February 2020 with the submission of the document "Connection between sexual violence and the armed conflict: a call for non-retrogression in the Special Jurisdiction for Peace", to which no response has been received. The opening of this national case is a unique opportunity for the investigation and analysis of the SRVR to focus on this violence, instead of addressing it as a tangential, secondary issue or as "isolated" facts, avoiding setbacks in the transitional justice process, such as that which is evident in the car studied.

For further information on this press release from click here

Colombia Diversa News