Transitional justice in Colombia: The Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Accountability and Intersectionality

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace, a transitional justice tribunal in Colombia, was established as a result of the 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian Government and the former guerilla group of the FARC-EP. This tribunal seeks to investigate and prosecute the most serious crimes committed during the Colombian armed conflict. The Canadian Government, academia, and civil society organizations have supported this attempt to build long and lasting peace in Colombia. Still, little is known, in Canada at large, about this transitional justice process. In this opportunity, the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, as a part of a McNaughton-Humphrey public panel discussion, has invited three justices of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace to discuss aspects of accountability and intersectionality within the context of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace work to the general public at McGill Faculty of Law. This event is also cosponsored by the Indigenous Law Association / Association du Droit Autochtone (ILADA). 

Join us for a talk with three justices of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, a unique court created in Colombia to render accountable those involved in decades of armed conflict, provide justice to victims of the violence and produce “truth” about the events, including through individual amnesties.

With Xiomara Balanta-Moreno, Oscar Parra-Vera, Alexandra Sandoval-Mantilla.

Oscar Parra-Vera 

Oscar Parra-Vera is a Justice at Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace. He holds an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Oxford, and is a lecturer at the National University of Colombia. He has worked as Senior Legal Officer at the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights, and as a fellow and consultant at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. He has been a guest expert for the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the Human Rights Council, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

Xiomara Balanta-Moreno 

Lawyer and Ph.D. in Social and Legal Sciences from the Rey Juan Carlos University (Spain), Master in International Law and human rights from the University of Notre Dame (United States), and Magister in Human Rights and Democracy in Latin America from the University Andina Simón Bolivar (Ecuador). Since 2018, she has served as a Justice at the Chamber for Amnesty or Pardon of Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace (“JEP” in Spanish). She was vice president of the JEP for the 2018- 2021 term, and was president of the Chamber of Amnesty for the 2018-2019 period. She is currently the coordinator of the Ethnic-Racial Commission of the JEP. 

Alexandra Sandoval-Mantilla 

Alexandra Sandoval-Mantilla is currently a Justice at the Chamber for Amnesty or Pardon of Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace (“JEP” in Spanish). In addition, she has been a senior lawyer at the NGO Women´s Link Worldwide, a clerk at the State Council of Colombia (the highest court for administrative law matters) and a senior lawyer at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Costa Rica). She holds a law degree (J.D.) from Los Andes University of Colombia, and an LL.M (Cum laude) in International Human Rights and Criminal Justice from Utrecht University. She has lectured at several academic institutions and participated in seminars in many Latin-America countries. She is the author of two books and several scholarly articles. 

Support provided by the Manuel Shacter Fund