In the last 30 years, Colombia has often been in the news because of its violent socio-political conflict.
Thanks to the Law of Justice and Peace passed by the Colombian Congress in 2005, thousands of leftist and rightist rebels were demobilised. The law included a substantial reduction in sentences if the rebels would hand over their arms, confess fully to their crimes, and relinquish property and money so that through a specially created Commission of Reparation and Reconciliation, the government could provide restoration to victims.
By October 2009, over 54,000 insurgents had accepted the offer to walk down this new road to reconciliation and peace. But how to reconcile with them after so many crimes?
It is commonly agreed that reconciliation demands at least three basic requirements: truth, justice/reparation and pacts of 'never again'. With the law of Justice and Peace, legislators in Colombia decided that truth would have priority over punitive justice.
However, the number of cases to be heard in the courts was of such magnitude that it would take nearly 100 years to complete it! In such situation neither truth nor justice could get a fair treatment. What to do?
In the last six years, a cultural alternative — very controversial and totally different to the judicial approach — has been promoted by a growing number of organisations: the culture of forgiveness and reconciliation. Although at first, both words ignited passionate discussions, gradually people have seen their coherence and their strength.
Forgiveness is being presented as a virtue that serves to break the irreversibility of the past and allow offenders to enter again into the community. It is offered as a personal process of catharsis, of memory transformation and of construction of new narratives. Forgiveness is not about forgetting and less, it is not about refusing to apply the law to offenders. Thus, forgiveness becomes an indispensible condition for reconciliation and facilitates the environment that will achieve it.
On the way to reconciliation, there are a few lessons learnt in the 30 years of conflict in Colombia. First of all, sustainable reconciliation demands at least three major realms of action: interpersonal, community and the political elite. The three of them must be acted upon simultaneously.
There is a level of interpersonal reconciliation which is not necessarily linked with political violence but nevertheless builds complex bridges with it: abuse in the family, violent resolution of conflicts, abuse in schools