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Colombia's Congress will debate Tuesday the bill to create the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, the key legal aspect of the landmark peace agreement between the government and FARC rebels.
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The Special Jurisdiction will be designed as an exclusive body to investigate and sanction those responsible for crimes perpetrated during the internal conflict, whether it be paramilitaries, members of state security forces or former guerrilla members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which will transition to being a political party after rebels lay down their weapons in the coming months.
The process will hand down sentences for crimes against humanity and oversee pardons or amnesty in cases of political crimes during the conflict that lasted more than half a century. The process will focus on prioritizing truth over criminal prosecutions, with alternative sentences such as community service aimed at rebuilding society in some cases.
"This is one of the most important projects of the peace agreement because it is the one that is going to impose justice on the members of the guerrilla, grant the right that victims have to justice, offer truth to Colombian society," said the Congress's president, Mauricio Lizcano.
According to lawmaker Hernan Penagos the discussion will take about 30 to 40 days inside the chamber. The jurisdiction is expected to begin working in May following the approval of several commissions and judges as stipulated in the peace agreement finalized last year after four years of talks in Havana, Cuba.
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As determined by the peace agreement, the Special Jurisdiction will have a 10-years expiry date, during which time it will function autonomously over all cases related to the armed conflict. Its mandate could be extended for five more years if cases are still not resolved. Congress already has approved an amnesty law for members of the FARC, pardoning them from political crimes — not human rights crimes — as well as a system of special legal treatment for members of the military.
Many have argued that tackling Colombia's ongoing paramilitary problem will be an important aspect of building stable and lasting peace in the country and ensuring transitional justice for victims.
FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño, also known as Timoleon Jimenez or Timochenko, said "it will be impossible" to achieve peace in Colombia if paramilitarism is not eradicated, a phenomenon that he argued the government "has turned a blind eye."
Since the signing of a revised peace agreement last November, FARC members have begun moving to 26 designated peace zones around the country where the former rebels will hand over their weapons and begin their transition to civilian life.
The implementation of the peace agreement is supported and monitored by a commission made up of government officials, the FARC and a political mission coordinated and financed by the United Nations.
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