Legal Pluralism, Transitional Justice, and Ethnic Justice Systems The Story of How Colombia is Building a Transitional Justice System Observant of Legal Pluralism
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Abstract
Colombian law recognizes that traditional Indigenous and Black authorities can exercise legal jurisdiction and apply their laws and traditions in their ancestral territories. Despite this legal recognition, the legal system does not operate in a way that genuinely guarantees legal pluralism. In practice, higher courts repeatedly overturn or dismiss decisions by indigenous legal authorities.
As a result of the 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian Government and the former guerilla of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – The People’s Army (“FARC-EP” in Spanish), a transitional justice tribunal was established: the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (“SJP” or “the Special Jurisdiction”). The Special Jurisdiction’s main task is to investigate and try the most serious crimes committed during the armed conflict, a conflict that has disproportionately impacted racialized communities. The SJP, unlike other tribunals in Colombia, has sought to adapt its work to meet the reality of legal pluralism by: 1) negotiating protocols for inter-jurisdictional interaction between the SJP and ethnic authorities, 2) consulting with Indigenous and Black communities on the adoption of some legal instruments, and 3) having a dialogue between equals with ethnic authorities when potential jurisdictional conflicts arise. This paper seeks to analyze this interaction and how it has allowed the Special Jurisdiction, as transitional justice mechanism, to work in close cooperation with Indigenous and Black communities in Colombia. As will be discussed throughout this paper, through the lens of the legal pluralism framework, such interaction has strengthened the legitimacy and recognition of Indigenous and Black communities’ legal authorities as parallel legal orders that can operate side-by-side with the State judicial system. This, in turn, has created an important precedent that can be emulated by other court jurisdictions in Colombia and elsewhere.
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References
For the purpose of this paper, the terms “racialized communities,” or “ethnic communities” are used to refer to Indigenous and Black communities.
Brian Z Tamanaha, Legal Pluralism Explained: History, Theory, Consequences (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021) at 9.
Adaptation (Amazon, 2002).
Ibid.
Ibid.
Asamblea Nacional Constituyente, “Colombian Constitution of 1991”, online: <http://www.secretariasenado.gov.co/senado/basedoc/constitucion_politica_1991.html> at Article 246.
Ibid at Articles 7 and 8.
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Ibid 3–4.
Ibid 4.
Ibid 9.
Ibid 11.
Ibid.
Ibid 12.
Ibid 11.
Ibid 13.
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Ibid 31.
Ibid 32.
Ibid.
Ibid 33.
Ibid 34.
Ibid.
Ibid 39.
Ibid 38.
Ibid 39.
Ibid 37.
Ibid 39.
Ibid 46.
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René Provost, Rebel Courts: The Administration of Justice by Armed Insurgents (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021) at 12.
Ibid.
Maxime St-Hilaire, “The Study of Legal Plurality outside ‘Legal Pluralism’: The Future of the Discipline?” in Stateless Law: Evolving Boundaries of a Discipline, ed by Helge Dedek & Shauna Van Praagh (London: Routledge, 2016), 116.
Ibid.
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“Autoridades Indígenas Pueblo Nasa Archives”, online: Çxhab Wala Kiwe <https://nasaacin.org/tag/autoridades-indigenas-pueblo-nasa/>.
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Ibid at Article 246.
International Labour Organization, Convention C-169 - Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), 1989 at Article 8; Congress of the Republic of Colombia, Ley 21, 1991; Xiomara Cecilia Balanta-Moreno et al, “El enfoque étnico-racial en la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz: una mirada desde el estudio de casos de la Sala de Amnistía o Indulto” in Danilo Rojas-Betancourth, ed, La JEP vista por sus jueces (2018-2019) (Bogotá, Colombia: Special Jurisdiction for Peace, 2020).
Ley 21, supra note 43.
Colombian Constitutional Court, Judgement C-169, 2001.
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Gary F Bell, “Multiculturalism in Law is Legal Pluralism—Lessons from Indonesia, Singapore and Canada” (2006) Singapore Journal of Legal Studies 315–330, online: <https://www.jstor.org/stable/24869083> at 316.
Colombian Supreme Court, judgement CP036-2018 Radicación n.° 49006 of 2018, in the case of
José Martín Yama Guacanés, P. 34.
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Jorge Luis Fabra-Zamora, Andres Molina-Ochoa & Nancy C Doubleday, eds, The Colombian Peace Agreement: A Multidisciplinary Assessment (New York: Routledge, 2021) at 1.
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Ibid.
Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadistica, Censo de 2018, Grupos étnicos - Información técnica https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/estadisticas-por-tema/demografia-y-poblacion/grupos-etnicos/informacion-tecnica.
Unidad de Víctimas (n 34).
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Colombia: Final Agreement to End the Armed Conflict and Build a Stable and Lasting Peace (2016)”, (2016), online: Refworld <https://www.refworld.org/docid/5b68465c4.html>.
Xiomara Cecilia Balanta-Moreno & Yuri Alexander Romaña-Rivas, “The rights of Afro-Colombian communities in the Final Agreement and its mechanisms of implementation” in The Colombian Peace Agreement (Routledge, 2021) at 221.
Lisa Davis, “Third Party at the Table: Afro-Colombian Women’s Struggle for Peace and Inclusion – Columbia Human Rights Law Review” (2020) HRLR 364–381, online: <https://hrlr.law.columbia.edu/hrlr-online/third-party-at-the-table-afro-colombian-womens-struggle-for-peace-and-inclusion/> at 369.
Ibid.
Congress of the Republic of Colombia, “Acto Legislativo 01 del 4 de Abril de 2017”, online: <https://jepvisible.com/observatorio/que-es-observatorio/73-normatividad/127-acto-legislativo-01-del-4-de-abril-de-2017>.
Balanta-Moreno & Romaña-Rivas, supra note 64 at 228–237.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, supra note 63.
Congress of the Republic of Colombia, supra note 67.
Redacción Justicia, “Justicia indígena no puede usarse para evadir casos de extradición - Cortes - Justicia - ELTIEMPO.COM”, (2021), online: <https://www.eltiempo.com/justicia/cortes/justicia-indigena-no-puede-usarse-para-evadir-casos-de-extradicion-637953>.
Colombian Constitutional Court, Judgement SU-510, 1998 at Par. 54-57.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, supra note 63 at Point 6.2.3 (e).
Congress of the Republic of Colombia, supra note 67 at Articles 1 and 12.
Congress of the Republic of Colombia, Ley 1957 (Statutory Law for the functioning of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace), 2019 at Article 18.
Congress of the Republic of Colombia, Ley 1922 (The Special Jurisdiction for Peace’s Rules of procedures), 2018 at Article 1.C.
Ibid at Article 70.
Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Acuerdo ASP No. 001 (SJP’s Internal Rules of Proceedings), 2020 at Articles 98-103.
Xiomara Balanta-Moreno et al “El enfoque étnico-racial en la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz: una mirada desde el estudio de casos de la Sala de Amnistía o Indulto,” in “La JEP vista por sus jueces (2018-2019),” ed by Danilo Rojas Betancourth (Bogota: JEP, 2020), 517, online: Scribd <https://es.scribd.com/document/455787698/Libro-La-JEP-vista-por-sus-jueces-2018-2019-WEB-pdf>.
Acuerdo ASP No. 001 (SJP’s Internal Rules of Proceedings), supra note 78 at Articles 107 and 108.
Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Lineamiento 02 de 2019 adoptado por la Comisión Étnica de la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz para implementar la coordinación, articulación y diálogo intercultural entre el Pueblo Rrom (Gitano) y la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz, 2019. It is worth mentioning that this is a third protocol adopted in 2019 concerning the interaction between the SJP and the Rrom People, but that community is not the focus of this paper.
Special jurisdiction for Peace, Diversidad Étnica y Cultural, Pluralismo Jurídico y Consulta Previa: Protocolo 001 de 2019 adoptado por la Comisión Étnica de la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz para la coordinación, articulación interjurisdiccional y diálogo intercultural entre la Jurisdicción Especial Indígena y la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz, 2019.
Special Jurisdiction for Peace, “La JEP abre Caso 09 para investigar los crímenes cometidos en contra de pueblos y territorios étnicos”, (2022), online: <https://www.jep.gov.co:443/Sala-de-Prensa/Paginas/JEP-abre-caso-09-investigar-crimenes-contra-pueblos-etnicos.aspx>; Silvia Corredor-Rodríguez, “Así se está construyendo el caso sobre afectación a los pueblos étnicos en la JEP | EL ESPECTADOR” (2022), online: <https://www.elespectador.com/colombia-20/jep-y-desaparecidos/asi-se-esta-construyendo-el-caso-sobre-afectacion-a-los-pueblos-etnicos-en-la-jep/>.
Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Protocolo de Relacionamiento entre la JEP y los pueblos Negros, Afrodecendientes, Raizal, y Palenquero., 2021.
Antonio Rosero, “Justicia étnica afrocolombiana”, supra note 8.
Acuerdo ASP No. 001 (SJP’s Internal Rules of Proceedings), supra note 78 at Article 99.
Congress of the Republic of Colombia, Ley 1820 (Law of amnesty and pardon), 2016.
Reinere de los Ángeles Jaramillo-Chaverra, “Reflexiones sobre el régimen de condicionalidad en el marco del Acuerdo de Paz” in Danilo Rojas-Betancourth, ed, La JEP vsita por sus jueces (2018-2019) (Bogotá, Colombia: Special Jurisdiction for Peace, 2020) at 421–436.
Resolution SAI-LC-D-ASM-034-2019 (In the matter of Duberney Tróchez Mestizo), Special Jurisdiction for Peace at Par. 79-85; Resolution SAI-SUBA-AOI-D-088-2021 (In the matter of Esnoraldo Patiño-Bonilla, Norberto Ramírez-López, Arley Patiño-Bonilla, y Graciela Narvaez), 2021 Special Jurisdiction for Peace at 192–197.
Ley 1957 (Statutory Law for the functioning of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace), supra note 75 at Articles 20 and 62; TeleSUR, “Colombia’s JEP Orders Capture of Former FARC, ‘El Paisa’”, (2019), online: <https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Colombias-JEP-Orders-Capture-of-Former-FARC-El-Paisa-20190427-0012.html>; Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Resolution SAI-LC-D-ASM-034-2019 (In the matter of Duberney Tróchez Mestizo), supra note 89; Special Jurisdiction for Peace, 2021 Resolution SAI-SUBA-AOI-D-088-2021 (In the matter of Esnoraldo Patiño-Bonilla, Norberto Ramírez-López, Arley Patiño-Bonilla, y Graciela Narvaez), supra note 89.
Congress of the Republic of Colombia, supra note 67 at Article 9; Colombian Constitutional Court, Judgement C-674, 2017, supra note 9; Ana María Zuleta Zuleta & Roberto Romero-Cárdenas, “Coordinación entre la JEP y la JEI: rol de las autoridades indígenas en la justicia aplicada durante el posacuerdo” (2020) 19:39 Opin jurid 167–185, online: <https://revistas.udem.edu.co/index.php/opinion/article/view/3546>.
Colombian Constitutional Court, Judgement T-365, 2018.
Congress of the Republic of Colombia, supra note 67 at Article 9; Colombian Constitutional Court, Judgement C-674, 2017, supra note 9; Colombian Constitutional Court, Judgement T-365, 2018, supra note 92.
Colombian Constitutional Court, Judgement T-365, 2018, supra note 92.
Special Jurisdiction for Peace, “La JEP Y la JEI llevaron a cabo la primera diligencia de versión voluntaria colectiva con excombatientes indígenas”, (2022), online: <https://www.jep.gov.co:443/Sala-de-Prensa/Paginas/La-JEP-y-la-JEI-llevaron-a-cabo-la-primera-diligencia-de-verdad-con-excombatientes-ind%C3%ADgenas.aspx>.
Davis, supra note 65 at 369.
Luis Alberto Arias Barrero, “Indígenas y afrocolombianos en situación de desplazamiento en Bogotá” (2011) 13 Trab Soc 61–76, online: <https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/tsocial/article/view/28365>.
Bell, supra note 48 at 316.
Misión de Apoyo al Proceso de Paz en Colombia (MAPP-OEA), “Especial: Retos actuales entre la justicia indígena y la justicia ordinaria”, (2018), online: <https://www.mapp-oea.org/especial-retos-actuales-entre-la-justicia-indigena-y-la-justicia-ordinaria/>.
Colombian Constitutional Court, Judgement C-674, 2017, supra note 9.