National Consultation of the Colombian Women for Peace, may 8-9

By Katerina Anfossi 

With the aim of strengtherning the perspectives and participation of  women within the peace process of Colombia and to enhance the analysis and the final document, the Paz and País National Congress celebrated a "Women´s Consultation for Peace".

Some  120 women coming from  Popayán, Medellín, Cartagena, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Tunja, Cundinamarca and Bogotá debated their peace actions against the armed conflict, aggravated upon the halt of the peace negotiations. 

The Women´s Consultation for Peace worked towards three main pivot analysis:

• War Process /Peace and Humanitarian Agreements

• Economic, social and cultural rights specially related to Employment, Social Security and Plan Colombia, Narcotraffic and illicit crops 

• Democracy, political reform and women´s participation 

Women vis-á-vis the war

 
The Bojayá massacre, ocurred on Friday 3 May, made it evident that women and children do not scape the armed confrontation.  Despite the diverse international agreements regarding protection of those who are not participating in the military armed conflicts, the civil population always remains at risk and thus it is imperative to resume efforts to put an end to the conflict, reiforcing the solidarity and aid  to the victims. 

The participants pinpointed the impact the armed conflict has in their lives, where the femenine body lacks  protection, where women are obliged to feed combattants from all sides, where girls and women are the sexual slaves of the guerrerist militarism, where women are raped and kidnapped to do the chores of cooking, cleaning, care and attention of the wounded, where burying the dead is a provocative act and where the forced displacement puts women at the verge of human misery, "it deprives them of their identity, community, family, handing them over the responsibility of a State which is incapable of providing alternatives", said Ana María Díaz, .representative of the working group on Women and Armed Conflicts and of the Jurists Commission. 

Multiple violations to women´s liberties have been contravened in the armed conflict and within the peace negotiation process, specially the need to build and strengthen solidarity among women and  in  the support networks with the social movement.  

Another point of special analysis emerged from the so called "Humanizing the War" working group, which leads to reflection on the paradigm of war, its codes and scope.  In the current conflict there are no limits for the different parties; a  call was made for  the  respect of life of the civil population,  their goods,   their crops, etc.   However, the panelists did not validate any type of war and demanded the total cease of fire should  no solutions come out  from  the military  or the social conflict in Colombia.  

The alternative towards peace will be the political negotiation, which will middingly solve both conflicts as long as new paradigms of peace and social forces which have been excluded and invisible are now included in the negotiation processes towards peace.  A political way out will require the participation of women, a righteous national agenda, encompassing,  ethical, which addresses   the complexity of the conflict. 

From the three main analysis the following was put forward

• To demand the cease of war and that the negotiations be resumed 

• To demand  from all armed sectors their  commitment to respect the civil population

• To require from the Government the conditions to resume the political negotiation 

• To guarantee the human rights of the population 

• To request the support of the international community in the process of the women´s social movement against the war 

• To request international support to monitor and document human rights and international humanitarian law violations

• To strengthen the civil resistance and the food security 

• To promote the political organization and the empowering of women 

• To strengthen the participation in peace working groups and networks 

• Respect of the femenine body and the sexual reproductive rights 

• Freedom of the kidnapped women and to stop the kidnappings 

• To promote a process of an agrarian reform 

• To promote and recognize the territoriality and the collective control of the natural resources by the indigenous peoples, tribal and afro-descendant communities. 

The struggle against drugs

Aura María Puyana delivered a speech at the National Women´s Consultation on the  Plan Colombia, narcotraffic and illicit crops.  The main aspects of special attention were: 

• The illicit growings  can not be solved as long as there are in Colombia incentives for the narcotraffic to reinvest the illegal money 

• A process of agrarian reform is urgent 

• The territoriality and collective control of the natural resources of the indigenous, tribal and afro-descendant peoples shall be promoted and recognized  

• A macro-economic and sectorial framework favourable to the campesino agricultural production should be created.  

• A policy of food sovereignty should be made as well as the promotion of the  strengthening of community production as a way of  sowing food in order to resist the war in peace and solidarity 

Alternatives vis-á-vis the war against drugs  

• Immediate cease of the fumigations 

• To incorporate the impact of the forced erradication policies into the monitoring on the compliance with humanitarian law 

• The reform Law 30 of the doping code, de-penalizing the production of raw material for illicit use  

• To recognize the traditional use of the coca leaf by  the indigenous populations and to lift the prohibition to grow it for medicinal, feeding and licit industrial uses

• To compensate the campesino populations for the fumigation damages suffered,  using  just and prompt mechanisms with citizen´s watching (vigilance, veeduría), without military pressure and under the bona fide principle 

• To focus the legitime State pressure on the financial chain of the illicits, on the supply of inputs to the narcotraffic, eliminating juridical, fiscal and political facilities and policies to repatriate and legalize illicit profits, in accordance with  international agreements on co-responsibility. 

• To propose again the concept of international co-responsibility 

• To comply with erradication goals and also that an indemnization be given to the countries for the damages caused by the war against drugs.  Co-responsibility can not consist of sending "military help for the "war against  drugs", but in the promotion of peaceful solutions and structural reforms for those promoting the illicit plantations.  

• To constitute a worldwide commission with independent character to give an statement on the 20 years of war against drugs and the options of de-penalization and legalization (proposal made in the International Encounter for Peace CR, October  2001)

Paz y País National Congress (Peace and Country National Congress) 

The Women´s Consultation for Peace also served as a preparatory meeting for the Paz y País National Congress celebrated on the 10 and  11 of May.   Near  1200 participants,  from all social, political and geographical sectors focused their analysis and debate upon  8 privotal priority actions:

• PEACE THROUGH DIALOGUE AND NEGOTIATION IS POSSIBLE

• HUMANITARIAN CRISIS 

• POLITICAL REFORM AND DEMOCRACY

• SOCIAL POLICY 

• AGRARIAN POLICY, FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND ILLICIT USE CROPS 

• POLICY AGAINST DRUGS AND PLAN COLOMBIA

• INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

• CITIZEN´S MOBILIZATION TOWARDS PEACE