THE PEACE PROCESS in COLOMBIA Statement by Eamon
THE PEACE PROCESS IN COLOMBIA Statement by Eamon Gilmore, EU Special Representative to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, April 4, 2019. A Chathaoirligh, A Theachtai agus Seanadoiri: Go raibh maith agaibh, as an cuireadh bheith libh ar maidin, chun cur sios gearr a dheanamh ar mo chuid oibre ar son an Aontas Eorpaigh, i dtaobh an proiseas siochana sa Choloim. Ta me sasta bhur gceisteanna a thogail tar eis mo raiteas. In October 2015, I was appointed by the High Representative, Vice President Federica Mogherini, as the EU Special Envoy for the Peace Process in Colombia. My role was to accompany the concluding stages of the Peace Negotiations between the Government of Colombia, and FARC which were taking place in Havana, Cuba, and thereafter, to accompany the implementation of the Peace Agreement, on behalf of the European Union. As the Committee is aware, a Peace Agreement was concluded in August 2016, to end the 52-year long FARC conflict, in which almost a quarter of a million people had been killed, 40,000 were still missing and 6 million people had been displaced from their homes. The Agreement was defeated in a National Plebiscite on October 2, 2016 (49.8% Yes; 50.2% No), was then renegotiated, and approved by the country’s parliament in December 2016, and all of this was subsequently upheld by the Constitutional Court. Implementation of the Agreement commenced on January 1, 2017. The Agreement, which took four years to negotiate, is very comprehensive, over 300 pages, and divided into 6 chapters which correspond to the 6 point agenda of the Peace Talks.
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