Mujeres construyendo paz en el mundo –El caso de Colombia.
Women building peace in the World –the case of Colombia.

Reflections of the WILPF Delegation to Colombia, July 2007
An international delegation of WILPF members went to Colombia in the end of July 07 to assess the situation for women within a 1325 context. The delegation supported the concern that the civil population, and particularly women and young girls make up the majority of those who are at a disadvantage in Colombia, particularly as internally displaced individuals who more frequently are the specific target of attacks by armed groups.

Colombia has one of the largest populations of persons in displacement, close to 4 million. One of the horrifying aspects is that about 1 million of the 4 million were displaced between 2005-2007, so the conflict is not lessening, but intensifying. The number of the dead in the conflict is not known, there is an estimate of 10 000. Still the Colombian government denies that there is an internal conflict in the country and ignores the evident humanitarian needs.
The delegation had the opportunity to listen to the representatives from human rights organisations, unions, women, and the official entity responsible for the introduction of the policy for women and gender and particularly to listen to the voices and statement of women victims and survivors.

The historical background is very deep and very complicated depending on where you begin. You could say the roots of the conflict go back 500 years or you could say they go back 185 years to the creation of the political parties which have held a lock hold on the system for the last 185 years. More recently you could say it goes back 60 years which would take us to the 1950s when the guerrilla groups were formed.

Being forced to move from your home and your land has many implications. Your house and land is the base of your security, your life project, as many women called it. The main reason for fleeing is continued violations of human rights, the fear created by the presence of armed groups, continued violence and the confiscation of land.

The majority of the displaced people are women, and they are also the most effected by the conflict. Women of Afro descendant and indigenous women are particularly at risk.
We had the chance to meet with several displaced women, who shared with us their history. They told us about their hard work, fears, shame and dreams. Many of them have been displaced for several years, and live under very simple conditions in the outskirts of the cities. Many of them are rural people, and the brutal meeting with the cities has been tough. It is both a different society, as well as very unsafe for them. They found themselves as strangers in the new societies, are often struggling to be integrated in the recipient communities and are also victims of gender violence.

Nevertheless, they have shown an incredible survival instinct, having clear strategies on how to restruct hope in life when living in another place. Many of the women we met are involved in different women's groups and organisations, where they, as they said themselves, find themselves trained, empowered and strengthened. Through training and work shops, they have learned handcrafts and established small businesses and are thus able to support themselves.

Some of the displaced women are also involved in more political work on the rights of women as well as rights of displaced people. This is dangerous work for the women, and several of them has received threats on their lives as well as threats to their organisations.

The Colombian government has passed a law about displaced persons, and the law is supposed to guarantee the rights of those persons; according to the law they should receive some tools, some financial assistance and some social help, but the women talked about lack of help and assistance. Some of them had received tools and materials to build houses in the new places, and they had built houses as soon as they received the materials. Many of the women complained that the law is very weak and, in any case, hardly implemented. The majority of the families lived without any government help and under very hard conditions.

Many of them talked about going back to their homes, to their homeland. However, there are many difficulties because of lack of legal and formal knowledge on how to claim back their land. There was also difficulties in achieving the rights to the land, especially for women. Lack of security is another problem; they are afraid to be exiled again if they returned to their homes. There is also a lack of organised political work and pressure upon the government. There is no national organisation for the displaced, no political or NGO umbrella organisation, nor any kind of political organisation who are systematically advocating for the displaced at a national level. The displaced persons constitute very weak groups, big groups, but very weak. Many local and international NGOs are working in Colombia, but the majority are working on the social level, not the political. The NGOs are working in many geographical areas; sometimes several organisations are working in the same area. The UN takes responsibility for the refugees outside the country, i.e. in the neighbouring countries. There seem to be two main problems in organising women in Colombia. The first is that the displaced women are afraid; this is natural as we have heard about massacres as well as selected killings, of displaced persons as well as other groups, as e.g. union leaders.

The other reasons are the social or traditional reason; that the husband or other men in the family tell the women that they will leave them if they join women’s organisations.