Peace during Covid-19 in Colombia

In this second policy briefing, we discuss the implementation of the Final Peace Agreement, its already rocky implementation before the COVID-19 pandemic and some of the greatest challenges as a result of the pandemic.

This is the second of three policy briefings, which are part of a COVID-19 in Colombia series. The policy briefing series seeks to provide relevant and timely information to academics who are conducting research, or plan on doing so in Colombia, related to the human rights impacts in Colombia and the implementation of the peace agreement. The series also aims to be a resource in the wider global community for policy-makers and civil society organizations, by using Colombia as an example of how crises of this magnitude affect transitional justice processes, as well as the ways in which such challenges can be dealt with.

In this second policy briefing, we discuss the implementation of the Final Peace Agreement, which was reached between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP in 2016. Specifically, we highlight the already rocky implementation of the Peace Agreement before the COVID-19 pandemic and explain some of the greatest challenges its implementation faces as a result of the pandemic. The policy briefing also demonstrates how the Duque administration has implemented a two-faced strategy of publicly supporting the Peace Agreement’s implementation, while at the same time, undermining and neglecting its effective implementation.

^{Image credit: Cruz Roja Española (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)}