Colombia - Reconciliación Colombia, an alliance of more than 30 civil society organizations, has been launched to generate dialogue and promote reconciliation throughout Colombia.

IOM Colombia is providing financial support to the initiative, but also provides ongoing technical support and advice for its website (www.reconciliacioncolombia.com), facilitates meetings in different parts of the country for participants to share their experiences, and is providing advice and input to its communications and visibility plan.

Reconciliación Colombia was created to educate Colombian society about the importance of engaging in reflection, rebuilding trust, empowering social groups, reestablishment of people’s rights, restoring traditions, and creating opportunities for those who want to exchange their weapons for peace.

The initiative will also allow coordination between the private sector, social organizations, and local and regional governments in order to generate high-impact projects for those returning to civilian life from armed conflict.

Over the past five months, the Reconciliación Colombia team, which includes political scientists, anthropologists, communications professionals and journalists, has held more than 300 meetings in different regions of the country to identify the principal actors, initiatives, and challenges to reconciliation.  The result of this exchange of ideas and research are available on the website.

A series of regional meetings are now planned to allow stakeholders to exchange experiences and ideas about the process of reconciliation in the country, so that best practices can be replicated.

For the past 50 years Colombia has suffered the effects of violence by paramilitary and guerrilla armed groups, which has left over 220,000 people dead, including over 180,000 civilians. Rural areas, small towns, and isolated regions have suffered the most and Reconciliación Colombia is focusing on peace initiatives underway in the most isolated regions and territories.

Other Reconciliación Colombia supporters include the US Agency for International Development (USAID); Ecopetrol, a Colombian oil company; UNDP; the Swedish Embassy, the OAS Peace Process Support Mission; the European Union; the Colombian Reintegration Agency; the National Unit for Integrated Attention and Reparation for Victims; the National Center for Historical Memory; over ten regional business groups; and over twenty national and regional media groups.

For more information, please contact

Jadin Vergara
IOM Colombia
Email: jvergara@iom.int  
Tel: (571) 6397777 Ext. 1715