Transitional Justice and Peace Basket Fund

The Fund, administered by IOM, supported 12 projects associated with the two contribution’s outcomes. In relation to Outcome 1, six national State institutions received technical and financial assistance to increase their capacity to promote transitional justice mechanisms stablished in the Victims’ Law and the Peace Agreement. Installed capacities by the Fund include: - adequate tools for the registration of missing persons by the General Attorney Office; - revised methodologies for memory building processes by the National Historic Memory Commission; - improved communication channels between the National Congress' Peace Commission, victims’ organizations and Government institutions; - increased capacities for registration, psychosocial care and satisfaction of victims living abroad by the Ministry of External Relations and the Victims’ Unit; - support to acts of acknowledgement of responsibilities conducted by the Peace High Commissioner Office of Colombia, and - recommendations to the National Government on the regulation of the Special Justice for Peace and the structuring of the Missing Persons’ Search Unit. The Fund contributed to guarantee victims’ rights by supporting 14 attention sessions for 1,442 victims who were either in the search of missing relatives or live abroad and needed information on how to access reparation measures offered by the State. As an unexpected result, support to the National Congress' Peace Commission allowed it to better follow-up on the legislative fast-track mechanism for the regulation of the Peace Agreement and opened a space for victims’ advocacy. The Peace Commission arranged sessions for victims to coordinate their position on the laws discussed by the Congress, which resulted in 220 proposals for the improvement of the victims’ policy made to the Colombian government. Regarding Outcome 2, the Fund supported initiatives that contributed to inform and educate civil society organizations and leaders on the contents of the Peace Agreement and peace building strategies, reaching 9.398 direct participants. These initiatives included: - 34 training programs for analyzing and generating a better understanding of the contents of the Peace Agreements with 2,194 participants (journalists, editors, civil society organizations and peasant leaders). - 475 journalists trained in communication competencies on peace building, gender and the dissemination of the Peace Agreement. 62 articles, bulletins, opinion columns and journalistic research reports on the challenges and opportunities of the Peace Agreement were published in national media portals. A total of 233,528 people read and replicated the content of these articles in social media (impressions/retweets). - Support of IFIT’s “Brain Trust”, which consolidated as a space for debate, consultation and technical support for a better understanding of the political context during the initial stage of implementation of the Peace Agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC.

The "Transitional Justice and Peace Basket Fund" was created in 2016 aiming to strengthen the institutional response for the implementation of transitional justice mechanisms and civil society education on peace building and the Havana Peace Agreement. The intervention contemplated two outcomes: (i) Increasing institutional capacities for victims’ redress and the transition to the new transitional justice mechanisms stablished in the Peace Agreement, and (ii) educating civil society on peace building and the contents of the Peace Agreement between the Government of Colombia and FARC-EP.