With the slogan "Technology Serving the Victims", IOM, the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the
Colombian Ministry of Justice and Rights this week launched the
Inter-Institutional Justice and Peace Information System (SIIJYP by
its Spanish acronym), which will serve as the clearinghouse of
information for the eight government agencies working on the
justice and peace process in Colombia.

The design and execution of the system, which was five years in
the making, was led by IOM with financial support from USAID and
the Ministry of Justice and Rights. It includes information on the
men and women who demobilized from illegal armed groups and have
joined the peace process, as well as information about the victims,
and assistance and reparation actions.

"The system was essential for the process to be streamlined,
accurate and fast.  All relevant information is now scattered
amongst all institutions involved.  This makes it more
difficult to have a general overview of the results obtained since
the justice and peace process got underway," explains Marcelo
Pisani, IOM Chief of Mission in Colombia.

The SIIJYP is an online tool that connects the databases and
information systems of the National Ombudsman's Office, Public
Prosecutor's Office, Superior Judicial Council, Attorney General's
Office, Superintendence of Notaries and Registries, Ministry of
Justice and Rights, the Department for Social Prosperity, and the
Specialized Victims Assistance and Reparation Unit.

It allows the users to search for information on former illegal
combatants, the victims and their claims, parties responsible for
damage, sentences, enforcement of sentences, background and
structure of the armed groups, exhumations of mass graves, photos,
assets handed over by perpetrators to compensate their victims, and
protection initiatives for victims and witnesses.

According to the Minister of Justice and Rights, Juan Carlos
Esguerra, "The system is one of the most complete transitional
justice tools in the world.  A major advantage is that it
collects and manages the information from all actors involved in
the process and allows daily access to information that otherwise
would have to be consulted figure by figure and process by process,
with each institution."

Some of the challenges for the SIIJYP in 2012 include:

• Entry of the records of more than 550,000 persons (victims,
  ex-combatants, and others) into the system.
• Management of information on more than 300,000 crimes filed by
  victims.
• Processing information on more than 4,000 remains exhumed by
  the Public Prosecutor´s Office, blood samples for DNA
  matches, and return of remains.
• Registration and management of more than 7,000 assets managed
  by the Victims Reparation Fund.
• Management of some 4,700 files of demobilized persons eligible
  for participation in the Justice and Peace Law.
• Registration of all individual and collective demobilization
  processes.

According to official figures, four million people in Colombia
have been victims of violence in the last 20 years; most of them
victims of forced displacement.  Since 2005, 362,000 have
lodged formal complaints with the Attorney General's Office for
crimes including forced disappearance, terrorism, sexual violence,
and kidnapping.

During the same period, more than four million hectares of land
were abandoned due to the violence.  Two million hectares were
illegally dispossessed, leaving some 350,000 families without their
land.

Between 2009 and 2011, 27,000 families received compensation
worth more than USD 276 million.  In the first six months of
2012, the Colombian Government plans to pay another USD 274
million.

The Colombian Government has also created health and education
programmes, as well as housing services, psychological and legal
support for the victims.

So far, 55,000 former combatants affiliated with illegal armed
groups have joined the peace process. Some 4,000 of them are
accused of committing crimes against humanity and are undergoing
judicial proceedings. Another 32,000 of them are in process of
reintegrating into civilian life.

As part of the reintegration process, the demobilized combatants
must confess their crimes, hand over all assets obtained illegally,
and pay reparations to the victims.  In exchange they can
begin the reintegration process, which includes education, job
training, employment and income generation support.

They have also provided information on more than 3,500 mass
graves where authorities have found more than 4,300 bodies; 1,500
of them have been fully identified and 1,300 handed over to their
respective families.

For more information, please contact:

Jorge Gallo

IOM Bogota

Tel: +57 1 6397777

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