Peacebuilding in Colombia
ICIP has a long history of supporting and accompanying peacebuilding efforts in Colombia. One of its most recent initiatives was collaborating with the Colombian Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence, and Non-Repetition.
From 2019 to 2022, ICIP served as the Commission’s Technical Secretariat in Europe, working to amplify the voices of Colombian conflict victims who sought refuge in various European countries.
In this role, ICIP provided technical and logistical support for the Commission’s activities, coordinated working groups (nodes) across Europe, and offered methodological guidance in collecting testimonies from victims in exile. These efforts were instrumental in documenting key cases and contributing to truth-seeking, justice, and guarantees of non-repetition.
The exiled Colombian community’s participation in the Truth Commission was a groundbreaking and innovative experience. It marked the first time a truth commission had systematically engaged with exiled victims as part of a transitional justice process, an unprecedented approach in global truth-seeking initiatives.
The lessons learned from this process have been compiled in Exile and the Colombian Truth Commission (ICIP and Truth Commission, 2023).
In 2022, ICIP and the Colombian Truth Commission produced a documentary highlighting Colombian exiles’ contributions to peacebuilding in Europe. Titled Para volverte a ver (To See You Again), the film was produced by Mandorla Films.
The documentary was filmed in Denmark, Switzerland, and Catalonia—home to its four protagonists: Yanira Restrepo, Juana Sánchez, Wilmer Torres, and Lizethe Álvarez. The final phase of filming took place during a working group gathering organized by ICIP in Barcelona in April 2022. This event also featured Truth Commissioners Carlos Beristain and Lucía González, who appear in the film.
Download the press kit on the documentary here (in Spanish).