Exploring Restorative Justice to Redress and Prevent Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Colombia’s Transitional Justice Process by Kelly Rico A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Social and Applied Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Human Security and Peacebuilding Royal Roads University Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Supervisor: Dr. Evan Hoffman December 2019 Kelly Rico, 2019 RJ AND COLOMBIAN CRSV ii Committee Approval The members of Kelly Rico’s Thesis Committee certify that they have read the thesis titled Exploring Restorative Justice to Redress and Prevent Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Colombia’s Transitional Justice Process and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the thesis requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Human Security and Peacebuilding. Dr. Evan Hoffman [signature on file] Dr. Cheryl Heykoop [signature on file] Final approval and acceptance of this thesis is contingent upon submission of the final copy of the thesis to Royal Roads University. The thesis supervisor confirms to have read this thesis and recommends that it be accepted as fulfilling the thesis requirements: Dr. Evan Hoffman [signature on file] RJ AND COLOMBIAN CRSV iii CREATIVE COMMONS STATEMENT This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- sa/2.5/ca/. Some material in this work is not being made available under the terms of this licence: ● Third-Party material that is being used under fair dealing or with permission. ● Any photographs where individuals are easily identifiable. RJ AND COLOMBIAN CRSV iv Abstract Ample research exists on the systematic weaponization of sexual violence (SV) in conflict, commonly known as conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). Personal accounts from CRSV victims along with calls for their healing abound. Societies transitioning out of conflict aim to incorporate a restorative justice (RJ) approach in their transitional justice (TJ) mechanisms and processes. Colombia’s current Peace Accord with the FARC-EP is unique in its commitment to addressing CRSV in its TJ process from an RJ lens. However, academic discourse with respect to CRSV is itself is just emerging, and specific knowledge about how to apply RJ to CRSV is wanting. Thus, questions remain about how to design justice frameworks for CRSV that incorporate RJ and still meet international law thresholds. To address this knowledge gap, this participatory action research (PAR) project engaged twenty-eight Colombian participants: six CRSV victims; one CRSV victim’s mother; seven victims’ organization representatives; two Colombian RJ organization representatives; seven FARC ex- combatants (including one self-admitted SV victim); one representative each of two Colombian State agencies governing TJ; and one international non-governmental organization (NGO) representative engaged in ex-combatant reintegration. They discussed needs, perspectives and possibilities for CRSV redress and reparations, and their responses informed six recommendations for RJ opportunities to redress and prevent CRSV in Colombia’s TJ process. Keywords: conflict-related sexual violence, DDR, ex-combatant reintegration, prevention, redress, reparations, restorative justice, transitional justice, victims RJ AND COLOMBIAN CRSV v Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................................................................. iv List of Tables .................................................................................................................................................................. viii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................................. viii List of Acronyms ............................................................................................................................................................... ix Definition of Terms ......................................................................................................................................................... xi Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................................................. i Dedication ......................................................................................................................................................................... iii Preface ................................................................................................................................................................................ iv Chapter 1 - Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1 The Colombian conflict and CRSV ..................................................................................................................................................................1 Research Problem ...................................................................................................................................................................................................3 Research Purpose and Questions ....................................................................................................................................................................3 Methodological Overview ...................................................................................................................................................................................4 Organization of Study ...........................................................................................................................................................................................4 Chapter 2 - Literature Review ....................................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................7 A Brief Overview of Colombian TJ, DDR and CRSV .................................................................................................................................7 The Evolution of (CR)SV Victim Remedy and Redress in Colombia ............................................................................................ 13 The Havana Talks (2012 – 2016) and the Peace Accord with FARC-EP (2017) ................................................................. 16 Reparations ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 25 The RJ Dilemma in TJ ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 43 Re-conceptualizing RJ for TJ........................................................................................................................................................................... 47 An RJ Framework for TJ .................................................................................................................................................................................... 53 Alternative Sentencing and RJ in TJ Processes ...................................................................................................................................... 65 A possible RJ framework for CRSV in Colombian TJ ........................................................................................................................... 74 Summary .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 86 Chapter 3: Methodology ............................................................................................................................................... 89 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 89 Research Goals and Questions ....................................................................................................................................................................... 89 Theoretical Framework .................................................................................................................................................................................... 90 Methodological Framework ........................................................................................................................................................................... 91 Participant Selection .........................................................................................................................................................................................