Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Table
- List of Abbreviations
- Notes on Contributors
- 1 Introduction
- 2 How Does UCP Protect Without Weapons?
- 3 A Typology for the Various UCP Practices
- 4 UCP and Conflict Transformation
- 5 The Temporal and Embodied Construction of Space and UCP
- 6 Unarmed Civilian Protection: Security or Humanitarian Aid?
- 7 Relational Strategies: Contested Approaches to Relationships in UCP
- 8 Unarmed Civilian Protection: Exploring the Challenge for Political Science
- 9 Gender and Care in Unarmed Civilian Protection
- 10 Unarmed Civilian Protection and Nonviolence with Attention to Sub-Saharan Africa
- 11 Transforming Armed Policing in the US: Contributions From Unarmed Civilian Protection Models
- 12 Protecting Former Perpetrators? Expanding the Concept of UCP/A Through an Exploration of Violence in the Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in Colombia
- 13 Unarmed Civilian Protection: Impact on Strengthening Civilian Capacities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
- 14 Conclusion
- References
- Index
12 - Protecting Former Perpetrators? Expanding the Concept of UCP/A Through an Exploration of Violence in the Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in Colombia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2024
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Table
- List of Abbreviations
- Notes on Contributors
- 1 Introduction
- 2 How Does UCP Protect Without Weapons?
- 3 A Typology for the Various UCP Practices
- 4 UCP and Conflict Transformation
- 5 The Temporal and Embodied Construction of Space and UCP
- 6 Unarmed Civilian Protection: Security or Humanitarian Aid?
- 7 Relational Strategies: Contested Approaches to Relationships in UCP
- 8 Unarmed Civilian Protection: Exploring the Challenge for Political Science
- 9 Gender and Care in Unarmed Civilian Protection
- 10 Unarmed Civilian Protection and Nonviolence with Attention to Sub-Saharan Africa
- 11 Transforming Armed Policing in the US: Contributions From Unarmed Civilian Protection Models
- 12 Protecting Former Perpetrators? Expanding the Concept of UCP/A Through an Exploration of Violence in the Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in Colombia
- 13 Unarmed Civilian Protection: Impact on Strengthening Civilian Capacities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
- 14 Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
Que la paz no nos cueste la vida [May the peace not cost us our lives].
(Phrase used by human rights defenders in Colombia, now also adopted by FARC peace signatories)Organizations working in the field of unarmed civilian protection and accompaniment (UCP/A) usually have fairly clear ideas about whom they work with, based on their core principles. They generally focus on civilians, including whole communities, as well as civil society groups and activists, who are facing (a threat of) physical violence. Their core principle of nonviolence means that they do not accompany armed actors, although there may be some grey areas in practice.1 Meanwhile, the principle of nonpartisanship, which many humanitarian-type organizations adhere to, or alternatively the principle of being by the side of those most oppressed, which activist-type organizations prefer (Schweitzer, 2020b, pp 78– 9), lead them to usually steer clear of powerholders, be that in formal or informal roles. Many UCP/A organizations build relationships with such actors to gain leverage for their protection work, but they do not accompany them. In theory at least, the binaries violent– nonviolent, armed actor– civilian, oppressor– oppressed, upon which this demarcation of UCP/A as a field of practice rests, seem straightforward. In this chapter, however, we show that they come to their limits when it is former perpetrators of violence who are the civilians in urgent need of protection.
In November 2016, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), by then Latin America's oldest guerrilla group, signed a peace agreement that ended a decades-long armed conflict and started a process of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of the FARC peace signatories. Five years later, by November 2021, and despite official safety guarantees for demobilized FARC fighters enshrined in the final agreement, 299 former FARC combatants had been assassinated (Indepaz, 2021a), in addition to forced disappearances and displacements of peace signatories and their families – and the violence continues. A year later, by November 2022, another 36 FARC peace signatories had been killed, indicating a continuous trend (Indepaz, 2022b).
- Type
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- Information
- Unarmed Civilian ProtectionA New Paradigm for Protection and Human Security, pp. 136 - 151Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2023