The National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (NCRR)
this week presented the Assets Restitution Programme (ARP),
containing guidelines for judges and public officials charged with
the implementation of the new Victims and Land Restitution Law.

The ARP, which was drafted using lessons learned from projects
developed with IOM, aims to ensure the restitution of land, houses
and territories to individual victims and groups affected by the
violence caused by illegal armed groups through mechanisms,
assistance options and procedures to assist victims when filing
their claims and for the authorities processing them.

Since 2009, IOM has provided support to the Colombian
authorities in the drafting of the ARP through financial resources
from the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), and assisting the NCRR in assembling and training regional
teams dispatched to collect information on land dispossession, take
claims from victims and establish judicial and administrative
mechanisms through which the land can be returned to its original
owners.

IOM's work on land restitution issues also include three pilot
projects in the northern departments of Antioquia, Sucre and
Bolívar, which successfully provided 295 property deeds to
victims who had been pushed off their lands. The projects also
cemented important lessons learned now being used by at a national
level.

With resources from the Canadian Government's Global Security
and Peace Fund, IOM and NCRR, took the draft of the APR to regional
and national social organizations, victims associations and
technical teams of the NCRR, as well as other government
institutions that were already implementing restitution and victim
reparation processes; their inputs were included in the final draft
of the law.

Colombian Vice President Angelino Garzón, and NCRR
Commissioner Patricia Buriticá, both stressed the importance
of the APR as a necessary guide for the successful implementation
of the land restitution programme and for all future activities to
be implemented by the Ministries of Interior, Justice and
Agriculture.

Marcelo Pisani, IOM Chief of Mission in Colombia added, "The APR
is one of the achievements we are most proud of. We know that this
document will strengthen the policies for the restitution of land,
territories and other property, and will set an example for other
countries that are going through similar processes".

Over the next four years, the Colombian Government expects to
return some two million hectares of agricultural land to
dispossessed farmers. According to NCRR statistics, there are more
than 6,500 pending claims filed by victims of dispossession.

The ARP was presented on the day the new Victims and Land
Restitution Law was approved by the Colombian Congress.

For more information, please contact:



Jorge Gallo, IOM Bogota

Tel: +57 1 6397777 Ext 1219.

E-mail: "mailto:jcordoba@iom.int">jgallo@iom.int