Five years ago, victims of illegal paramilitary activity in Colombia received the Peace and Justice Law as a tool to assist in the search for truth and reparation. Today the law has 4.346 applicants who, in exchange for depositions meant to help shed some light on the unknown fate of their victims, can become eligible for judiciary benefits such as modified or reduced sentences.

Most participants are former Auc members, but a small percentage are former guerrillas from Farc and the Eln. “The Peace and Justice Law has made victims in Colombia visible. It has created national awareness surrounding victims and their rights and to this day 281.661 people have registered as such with the Attorney General’s office. 50.461 of them have directly taken part in the applicants’ depositions to find out the truth surrounding what happened to them or their loved ones”, said High Commissioner for Peace, Frank Pearl.

There are those who argue, however, that the law’s contributions have been few and far between, especially due to procedural delays in terms of how the law should be applied.

But Commissioner Pearl quoted Luis Moreno Ocampo, from the International Criminal Court, who’s clear on two issues: First, Colombia has the most ambitious transitional justice process in the world. And second, there’s no room for the ICC here because Colombia’s judicial system, with all its imperfections, still works.

“No other country in the world has experienced the progress we’ve had in the sense of applying a transitional law in a matter of four years. The greatest achievement is that we made the victims visible. Let’s go back eight years. In Colombia we always knew there were victims. We even felt like victims, but were there any victims in Colombia who thought they had rights?” Pearl pointed out.

Victims’ vulnerability  a concern

Despite the flaws reported by the Colombian Jurists Commission in the document ‘Colombia: the metaphor of the dismantling of paramilitary groups’, assistant director of Investigations, Ana Maria Diaz, does see some merit in the law’s creation. The Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court’s actions in favor of victims and the valuable information gathered through depositions, albeit insufficient for many, have helped clear up acts committed by paramilitary groups in Colombia.

Victims have somehow been empowered to come forward and use the tools placed at their disposal by law. “Today they are more organized despite the fact that many are still persecuted”, Diaz said.

But it’s this last issue that concerns Camilo Bernal, director in Colombia of the International Center for Transitional Justice, who shares Diaz’ concern regarding lack of security for victims involved in the Peace and Justice Process. While it’s positive that the victims have become more visible, “it may have also brought increased vulnerability and security risks to them as a consequence”, Bernal said.

A slow process

The number of applicants, of exhumations, of complaints and confessions seem to be more than Peace and Justice can handle and the workload has contributed to delays in sentencing, only one has been handed down to two applicants in five years.

Úber Enrique Bánquez, aka “Juancho Dique” and Edwar Cobos Téllez, aka “Diego Vecino”, became the first applicants to receive sentences in the Peace and Justice process for their role in the Mampuján, San Cayetano and Islas Mécura massacre in Bolívar. Had they not adhered to the terms of the Peace and Justice Law, they would have faced between 38 and 39 years, instead they got 8.

“It’s clear we need to make more progress”, Pearl said, but the success of this Law cannot be measured in terms of sentencing alone. In its second phase, he says, efforts can focus on sentencing.

It’s not easy to predict what the next steps are. The Government, through Commissioner Pearl, has insisted on the need for Congress to extend the law’s validity by a year, as it currently applies only to crimes committed up until July 25th of 2005. Extending it through mid-2006 would make it accessible to some 250 former guerrilla members of the Eln and 400 from Farc.

Five years after its approval, Peace and Justice has its work cut out with pending issues like land restitution, reparation based on standards set forth by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and victims’ security and vulnerability; the truth must be heard from extradited paramilitary leaders and there need to be consequences for claims of ties between paramilitaries and government employees.

These are just a few of the challenges Peace and Justice will need to face, faster and more efficiently, now that it’s turned 5.