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"Madres de Soacha" winners of the 2012 ICIP Peace in Progress Award
This year, on the occasion of the celebration of the International Day of the Peace, ICIP has made public the winning candidature of the 2012 Peace in Progress Award. The Governing Board of ICIP has awarded the 2012 ICIP Peace in Progress Award to Luz Marina Bernal, Carmenza Gómez, Maria Sanabria, Melida Bermúdez and Lucero Carmona, five women who are part of a group of Colombian mothers often referred to in the media as "Madres de Soacha" (Mothers of Soacha; Soacha being a town near Bogotá).
The five mothers have been awarded for the work they have carried out in response to the extrajudicial killings of some of their children by the Colombian security forces. Their persistent and very courageous work has become a symbol of the almost 3,000 allegations of extrajudicial killings committed between 2004 and 2008, and still under judicial investigation. These executions were subsequently justified with accusations that have proven to be false; the so-called "false positives".
The ICIP Peace in Progress Award consists of public recognition, a sculpture created by Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, called Puerta del Sol, and 6,000 euros. It will be presented at the beginning of 2013 in an event to be held at the Parliament of Catalonia.