 | Elusive Justice: Women, Land Rights, and Colombia''s Transition to Peace Subjects: Land reform -- Colombia; Land reform -- Law and legislation -- Colombia; Land reform beneficiaries -- Colombia; Women landowners -- Colombia; Women peasants -- Colombia -- Social conditions; Land tenure -- Colombia; Fifty years of violence perpetrated by guerrillas, paramilitaries, and official armed forces in Colombia displaced more than six million people. In 2011, as part of a larger transitional justice process, the Colombian government approved a law that would restore land rights for those who lost their homes during the conflicts. However, this restitution process lacked appropriate provisions for rural women beyond granting them a formal property title. Drawing on decades of research, Elusive Justice demonstrates how these women continue to face numerous adverse circumstances, including geographical isolation, encroaching capitalist enterprises, and a dearth of social and institutional support. Donny Meertens contends that women's advocacy organizations must have a prominent role in overseeing these transitional policies in order to create a more just society. By bringing together the underresearched topic of property repayment and the pursuit of gender justice in peacebuilding, these findings have broad significance elsewhere in the world. Donny Meertens is an associate researcher at the Institute of Human Rights and Peacebuilding Alfredo Vázquez Carrizosa atPontificia Universidad Javerianaand cofounder of the School of Gender Studies at the National University of Colombia. She is the coauthor of Bandits, Peasants, and Politics: The Case of "La Violencia" in Colombia and the coeditor of Colombia from the Inside: Perspectives on Drugs, War and Peace . |
