On June 21-23, 2022, Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction of Peace (la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz, or JEP) held its first acknowledgment hearing on the taking hostages, serious deprivation of liberty, and other concurrent crimes (known as Case 01) at the Virgilio Barco Library auditorium in Bogotá. Seven former leaders of the guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (FARC-EP) acknowledged their command responsibility for the kidnapping crimes that were the FARC-EP’s policy from 1993 to 2012 in the presence of victims, JEP officials, representatives from civil society and international organizations, and members of the national and international press.
This hearing marked the first time ever FARC-EP leaders publicly acknowledged their role in such systemic crimes and represents a decisive step in the country’s restorative justice process and in the affirmation of the victims’ dignity, both needed to mend Colombia’s social fabric torn apart by over 50 years of war.
In order to lay the strongest possible foundation for the encounter between victims and the former FARC-EP leaders, ICTJ facilitated three individual sessions with each of the 29 victims who offered their testimony at the hearing, four preparation workshops with former FARC-EP leaders, and three restorative justice meetings between victims and those responsible before the hearing.