Faculty of Law

Course Description

Violent conflicts, and especially civil wars, (which still represent the vast majority of conflict today), have increased over the last years, expectations, norms and efforts to build peace with a human rights-based approach have also grown and expanded round the globe. Indeed, peacebuilding and human rights are both crucial components of sustainable conflict transformation. However, while both, peacebuilding and human rights, are crucial to enable political transitions and change, the process of integrated them in a transitional political process towards peace and democratization presents several dilemmas, tensions and challenges. One of them refers to the polysemous and dynamic character of the two concepts. In other words, the meaning and implications of a human rights perspective in peacebuilding processes can vary according to several factors such as the context, the actors involved as well as the timing and the political, economic and cultural conditions. All these factors ultimately influence different understandings, expectations, dynamics of peace negotiation and redress policies for victims a.o. often leading to an array of social and political controversies and debates on what are the main goals, modalities and scope that such peacebuilding processes should and can take at the local, regional and even international level. In order to address these debates and challenges, the course will provide an introduction to the topic, debates and tensions of human rights and peacebuilding dynamics in conflict transformation settings. This will include an analysis of the conceptual and historical foundations of both terms, as well as the main potentialities synergies and challenges. The course will offer a variety of disciplinary perspectives in conflict and post-conflict contexts. Throughout the course, concrete case studies will be used to illustrate the range of human rights and peacebuilding thresholds involving state and non-state actors as well as civil society and victims’ organizations in order to promote more inclusive and non-violent societies. The combination of theoretical approaches with the analysis of concrete case studies will enable students to acquire key skills and knowledge in the understanding of peace, human rights and conflict transformation dynamics.

Online Tool for Teaching

Zoom

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Bachelor, Master, open for students of the following subject/field: Social Sciences, Law, Economy, Geography, History

Prerequisites

English B2

Examination Format

Oral presentation and final paper

ECTS

5

ECTS without examination

3

Course Description

La justicia transicional como disciplina ha tenido un desarrollo normativo, jurisprudencial y académico muy amplio en los últimas 50 años. Resultado de este desarrollo acelerado ha sido la creación de ciertos mínimos internacionales de carácter obligatorio para los países que buscan superar pasados traumáticos. Parte de esta estandarización, pasa por que la satisfacción de los derechos de las víctimas a la verdad, la justicia y la reparación sea indispensable para hacer tránsito de un régimen que viola los DDHH a uno que lo respeta.  Estando el derecho a la justicia asociada a una forma de justicia punitivista y reribucionista. La Jurisicción Especial para la Paz es el primer tribunal de crímenes de guerra y lesa humanidad en el mundo que tiene el mandato expreso de implementar justicia restaurativa en sus procedimientos. El reto no es menor: por un lado, implica desvincular a la justicia transicional de su origen punitivista y por otro lado justificar que, a pesar de esa desvinculación, el derecho a la justicia de las víctimas puede ser satisfecho.

Course Description

El presente curso aborda las diferentes tramas sociojurídicas que unen a la Justicia Transicional con la memoria y las reparaciones simbólicas. Tres temáticas que se interrelacionan profundamente ya que las tres se van consolidando en el mundo social y académico a finales de los ochenta, como parte del estándar internacional sobre los derechos de las víctimas y el deber de investigar de los estados que hacen un tránsito de la guerra a la paz o de una dictadura a la democracia.  En dichos tránsitos el deber de memoria cumple un papel preponderante en las reparaciones de tipo simbólicas, ya que su función va más allá de la reparación material, su objetivo es ayudar a reconstruir los universos simbólicos rotos por la violencia y/o la guerra, dignificar a las víctimas y buscar la reconstrucción de los tejidos sociales rotos. En el marco de la justicia transicional colombiano, la memoria se enmarca dentro de las medidas de satisfacción que según la Ley 1448 son aquellas acciones que proporcionan bienestar y contribuyen a mitigar el dolor de la víctima, asegurar la preservación de la memoria histórica, la no repetición de los hechos victimizantes, la aceptación pública de los hechos, la solicitud de perdón público y el restablecimiento de la dignidad de las víctimas.  

Course Description

The course offers an introduction to the field of peace and conflict studies. After discussing basic concepts, the course will deal with topics including Peacebuilding; Rebel Governance; Transitional Justice and Human Rights; Gender and Interdectionality; Natural Resources and Environmental Peacebuilding as well as Education and Peace Building.

Course Description

The seminar focuses on the multiple forms of feminist activism and knowledge production emerging in different locations of the Global South, with a particular emphasis on Latin America. It connects the political activities and discussions taking place in these contexts around women’s and LGBTQ+ rights with the fields of transitional justice and peace building, which seek to address conflicts and political violence around the world. Students will approach various feminist currents focusing for instance on armed conflict and human rights violations, antiracist and decolonial praxis, environmental justice, and sexual and reproductive rights. The seminar also provides a conceptual background on key elements of feminist and queer theorization such as gender, intersectionality, sexual orientation/gender identity, patriarchy, structural racism, coloniality, ethnicity, care and many others.