BIC in Colombia DAY 1
As part of its efforts to expand its research reach into other equally challenging contexts, the BIC is participating in 5 days missions in Bogota, Colombia, following an invitation from UN Women Colombia. This marks the first time the BIC is present at the Latin American context, exploring the many current challenges the continent faces. More particularly at the Colombian context, persisting barriers to a more sustainable and inclusive peace process, following the 2016 Peace Accord, pertains to questions of reintegration of former FARCs combatants and the political undermining of gender equality and women`s leadership at the security sector. Those were the main themes discussed during the first meeting between the BIC, local women`s organizations that included CIASI, UN Women and members of the Colombia Armed Forces.
The closed-doors meeting brought many issues pertaining to security and gender together, while highlighting the different roles women still play as peace-builders especially in the most-affected areas previously occupied by the FARCs. Over the course of the first day, participants were given the opportunity to discuss and assess the “state of play” in efforts to bring a more gender-sensitive approach into the security sector, especially the police and armed forces.
As participants discussed, women are not usually military leaders, their roles as soldiers is often obscured, rendered invisible or considered unimportant. The fraught and incorrect logic maintains that because women do not `participate` in the conflict, they should not be at the negotiation table. However, it is interesting to note that in the Colombian case, almost 40% of FARCs members were women, participating actively in the fight. The challenge now in Colombia is how to recognize these women`s roles and develop inclusive and contextual policies for their reintegration into the society.
Throughout the meeting the BIC outlined that there are three ways women already working for peace in Colombia can be supported by other groups to ensure they overcome local and complex barriers. These include supporting women to prepare their own agenda for peace processes; ensure both formal and informal access to peace processes; and advocating on behalf of women`s groups, particularly when participation in peace processes are hindered.
In the next few days the BIC will participate in several other meetings with the security sector, EU delegation in Colombia and international organizations based both in Brussels and beyond. The topic? Women`s leadership position in peace-building and security.