The collaboration agreement between ICIP and the Commission for the Verification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition of Colombia, signed in May 2019 for an initial period of one year, has been extended until the end of the Commission’s mandate. The agreement grants ICIP the role of Technical Secretariat of the Truth Commission in Europe with the aim of facilitating the Commission’s work with victims living on the European continent, within the framework of the implementation of the 2016 Peace Accords.
Based on this agreement, ICIP offers technical and logistical support to the activities organized by the Commission in Europe, coordinates the working groups established in various European countries (nodes), and offers methodological support to the process of taking testimony from the victims of the Colombian conflict in exile. This will allow for the documentation of cases and contribute to the clarification of the truth, justice and the non-repetition of similar events. Over the last year, ICIP has supported the creation of new European nodes and thematic working groups, and has organized various meetings with them in order to share experiences and to delve more deeply into the action line dealing with victim recognition.
To date, fifteen working nodes have been set up in ten European countries (Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as in Andalusia, Catalonia, Madrid, the Basque Country and Valencia, in Spain).
In this first work phase of clarification of truth, the various nodes have compiled a total of 300 testimonies in Europe, which should facilitate the writing of a plural story about the Colombian conflict and the recovery of individual and collective memory. The work carried out by ICIP also includes the publication of a series of videos on the work being carried out by the various European nodes.
Innovative and unprecedented mandate
The Truth Commission of Colombia has an innovative mandate that is unprecedented in other truth commissions. This mandate involves approaching the tens of thousands of people who had to leave the country during the five decades of armed conflict, searching for new life options, mainly in the Americas and in Europe. The objective for 2019 is to document the cases of a thousand victims in Europe.
The mandate of the Commission envisages a participatory process with the victims themselves, in order to promote their psychosocial healing and coexistence among victims of different armed actors. To accomplish this task, the support of social and institutional organizations in the European countries where these people reside is essential
This website with information on all the European nodes has been published for the specific work of the Truth Commission in Europe.
