06 August 2024
The Right to Defend Rights
On April 21, Narciso Beleño, a rural (campesino) leader and human rights defender who worked for the restitution of land and the sustainable exploitation of natural resources in Colombia, was murdered. Sadly, this is not an isolated case. 79% of the murders of human rights defenders occur in the Americas, with 47% in Colombia alone. Two recent judgments by the Constitutional Court of Colombia and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have now addressed the phenomenon and gave legal life to the right to defend human rights. Continue reading >>
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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. Continue reading >>
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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. Continue reading >>05 March 2021
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. Continue reading >>17 April 2020
Pandemic and Executive Powers in Colombia: A Problem and a Modest Proposal
The way in which the events surrounding the pandemic in Colombia have unfolded, and the measures taken so far by the executive branch have led us, once again, to think about presidential powers: their scope, extent and limits. The first question we ask ourselves is: what kind of powers does the executive branch exercise when it orders measures such as national mandatory self-confinement? Perhaps in the midst of uncertainty and fear it seems natural to us that mayors, governors and ultimately the President have decided to confine us to our homes under threat of a fine if we don’t follow the precise guidelines of the various decrees and administrative acts. But such power and restriction of our freedom is a matter of concern that we must examine closely. We must also pay attention to the institutional mechanisms that are being deployed to deal with the crisis. In the current situation, not only does the what in the decision matter (i.e., mandatory self-confinement measures), but also the who and the how (i.e., whether the decisions are adopted by mayors, governors or the President – and, in the latter case, if the President does it through exceptional or ordinary powers). Continue reading >>26 May 2016