Colombia's National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation
(NCRR), responsible for leading the transitional justice process in
the country, presented the Institutional Programme for Collective
Reparation (IPCR) to representatives of the national government.

The IPCR, designed with advice and guidance from IOM and with
funds from the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) gathers recommendations and methodologies for the
application of this reparation mechanism in Colombia.

The NCRR, led by Colombia's Vice President, Angelino
Garzón, handed over the document to representatives of the
Ministry of Justice and the High Commissioner for Social Action and
International Cooperation, both charged with the implementation of
the recently approved Victims' Law, which stipulates that the
central government must design and carry out a national policy of
collective reparation.  The IPCR will be the basis for this
policy.

The NCRR, working with IOM, developed eight collective
reparation pilot projects in communities affected by violence - El
Salado (Bolivar), Libertad (Sucre), El Tigre (Putumayo), Buenos
Aires (Cauca), Cordoba University, the Rural Workers Association of
Carare (Santander), the Candelaria Mothers Association in Medellin,
and the black and Afro-Colombian communities in Buenaventura.

The communities of Libertad, El Salado, el Tigre and the
Association of Farm Workers of Carare (ATCC) designed and presented
their collective reparation plans to the local authorities in May
2011.  The other three will be presented in the near
future.  The eight pilot projects provided the practical basis
for the IPCR.

Ana Teresa Bernal, Commissioner of the NCRR, said: "Collective
reparation must become a priority in Colombia.  Violence
destroyed the social fabric of several communities and derailed the
plans of many social, political and cultural organizations. 
It is important that the victims have clear and efficient
mechanisms, such as this one, to allow them to rebuild their
present and future as members of a community."

IOM, NCRR and USAID carried out a geo-reference exercise, which
identified the first 100 communities which could benefit from
collective reparation, these included municipalities and regions
that suffered the most from the actions of illegal armed
groups.  Several social, cultural, political groups, members
of labour unionist, women, reporters, and Indigenous and
Afro-Colombian communities were also identified as potential
beneficiaries.

Collective reparation is one of the modalities contemplated by
transitional justice processes at the international level, but only
a few countries, including Peru, Morocco and Colombia have designed
programmes to develop this mechanism.  Among the measures
included in this programme are the restitution of goods,
compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantee of
non-repetition.

For the past four decades, the violence perpetrated by illegal
armed groups in Colombia has impacted the lives of hundreds of
thousands of persons.  Since 2005, some 333.000 victims have
applied to the Colombian Government for reparation.  And
344,139 have reported war crimes to the Attorney General's Office;
most of these formal complaints are still under investigation.

Since 2006, with funding from USAID, IOM has been providing
assistance to victims of violence, including facilitating access to
truth, justice, reparation and reconciliation
processes.   IOM also provides daily advice and support
in the process of developing new alternative ways of income
generation.

At the same time, IOM, through its Community Focused
Reintegration Programme, is working with ex-combatants of illegal
armed groups in their process of reintegration into civilian life
and their reconciliation with society.  In the past four years
IOM has worked with the Colombian Government in the reintegration
of some 54,000 persons demobilized from illegal armed groups.

Marcelo Pisani, IOM Colombia Chief of Mission, explains: "USAID
and IOM decided to support the collective reparation because we are
convinced that this mechanism will allow us to contribute to the
reconstruction of the lives of many victims of violence in
Colombia.  But there are major challenges ahead. We are
confident that the government will be able to assess and put into
practice the lessons learned from these past four years of
work."

For more information, please contact:

Jorge Gallo

IOM Bogota

Tel: +57 1 639-7777

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