Approximately 60 Colombian judges and magistrates are this week
participating in a land restitution training workshop, designed by
IOM with support of the Colombian think tank "De
Justicia".

Thirty-two lawyers of the Administrative Land Restitution Unit,
in charge of leading the process and assisting victims during the
land recovery proceedings, as well as 14 officials of the Attorney
General's Office and 14 others from the Delegated Superintendence
for the Protection, Formalization and Restitution of Lands, in
charge of supervising the process, will also participate in the
workshop.

"The large number of so-called agrarian judges participating in
this workshop has a great historical significance for
Colombia.  The first group assigned to look into land issues
came together in 1989 and was disbanded in 1996.  Today, the
Government of Colombia has assigned some 134 judges and 60
magistrates to make legal decisions on land restitution and to
solve property-related conflicts.  It is expected that in
2012, these judges will rule on some 2,100 land restitution cases,"
explains Marcelo Pisani, IOM Chief of Mission in Colombia.

Working with De Justicia, with funding from USAID, IOM designed
nine modules on Transitional Justice and Land Restitution to train
public servants charged with implementing the Victims and Land
Restitution Law, approved by the Colombian government in June
2011.

One of the modules is addressed to judges, magistrates and
lawyers who will participate in land restitution processes. Some of
the subjects that will be discussed during the five-day training
include: how to typify the victims of land dispossession, agrarian
rights-related tools, concepts of transitional justice and related
instruments, approaches for indigenous and Afro-Colombian victims,
and the role of the judge within the legal route for land
restitution.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will take part in the
opening ceremony on Wednesday, February 8, together with Minister
of Agriculture Juan Camilo Restrepo and the Presidents of the
Supreme Court of Justice, Jaime Arrubla Paucar and the Judicial
Supreme Council, Angelino Lizcano Rivera.

It is estimated that some four million hectares of land in
Colombia were abandoned due to violence, and two million persons
were illegally dispossessed.  It is expected that
approximately 350,000 families will benefit from the land
restitution process.  In addition, estimates point to
approximately 1.5 million hectares that do not have a formal title
that defines the property's legal situation, which means that about
40 per cent of the country's rural estates remain held
informally.

For more information, please contact:

Jorge Gallo

IOM Bogota

Tel: +57 1 +6397777

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