12 April 2023

Colombia, a Besieged Democracy with (New) Oligarchic Tendencies?

On 20 March, Colombia’s newly formed government suspended the cease fire it had only recently concluded with the Clan de Golfo, one of the country’s most powerful, remaining armed non-state actor (ANSA). The announcement followed repeated attacks against civilians in the country’s North-West ascribed to the group. Not even ten days later, the largest remaining guerrilla group, the ELN (also engaged in the government’s Total Peace initiative), killed nine soldiers in an attack in the frontier region with Venezuela. This blogpost details what distinguishes these post-FARC and post-AUC Armed Non State Actors from their predecessors and how their emergence threatens to ensure that Colombia remains a besieged democracy, despite all the progress it has made.

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23 February 2023

ChatGPT in Colombian Courts

Colombian judges have transcribed ChatGPT’s outputs to motivate their rulings without examining whether the content produced by the chatbot was accurate. Ensuring digital literacy of the judiciary is critical in times of generative artificial intelligence.

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06 January 2023
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#DefendingTheDefenders – Episode 5: Colombia

The fifth episode of #DefendingTheDefenders, the rule of law podcast by Deutscher Anwaltverein and Verfassungsblog, focuses on Colombia, where the situation for attorneys and human rights defenders is particularly dangerous.

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29 October 2021

Die Rückkehr „positiver Komplementarität“

Der (neue) Chefankläger des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofs (IStGH), Karim A. A. Khan Q.C., hat gestern die Einstellung der (jahrelangen) Vorermittlungen (preliminary examination) zu Kolumbien angekündigt. Mit der Einstellung haucht der neue Chefankläger des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofs dem in Vergessenheit geratenen Konzept „positiver Komplementarität“ neues Leben ein und lässt eine strategische Neuausrichtung erkennen.

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21 April 2021
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Recognising Nuances

This week, the German Parliament is beginning its debate on the cabinet draft for a national Due Diligence Act (Sorgfaltspflichtengesetz). Critics of Germany’s initiative often claim that it would run counter to the development interests of the Global South. This, however, not only ignores strong development policy arguments in favour of human rights due diligence (HRDD) regulation but also the fact that several countries in the Global South are calling for similar obligations or have already created them. In particular, Germany may learn valuable lessons from the Colombian Constitutional Court’s recent case law which has created meaningful HRDD obligations for companies as well as from a draft for a Mexican Due Diligence Act.

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05 March 2021
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Dealing with the Pandemic: A Stress Test for Colombian Political Institutions

It has been a year now since a discussion began about the profound changes that the arrival of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic could bring to our constitutional systems. This year has confirmed that the bad omens of the early days of the pandemic were well justified. The system has been put through a severe stress test and, unfortunately, we cannot say that it has been up to the challenge. This blog post seeks to briefly review the main events that have marked the institutional response to the pandemic and the implications that this response has had for the Colombian constitutional system.

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06 February 2019
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Transitional Justice in Colombia Under Attack: An Interview with GABRIEL ROJAS

Colombia is the first country in the world with a peace agreement that includes the Rome Statute obligations of the International Criminal Court in its new transitional justice system. But after a change of government last year, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP) is already coming under attack before it has barely started.

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03 May 2017

In Defense of Judicial Populism: Lessons from Colombia

In 2005, the Colombian Constitutional Court upheld an amendment allowing […]

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