In 2016, after over five decades of internal armed conflict, the Colombian government and the largest guerrilla group in the country, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP), signed a peace agreement. Among the most significant innovations of the peace agreement are its gender and environmental focuses, which act as guiding principles for peacebuilding.The gender focus acknowledges unequal gender relations exacerbated and instrumentalized during the armed conflict. The environmental focus acknowledges the environmental-related causes and consequences of the armed conflict. Despite being central to the peacebuilding context, these two focuses remain treated mainly independently during peacebuilding. Understanding how these two are directly related could prove vital for ensuring peace for the future.
Climate change acts as an intensifier of gender-based violence
Gender-based violence is among the conflict’s most dreadful consequences. As defined by the Colombian Constitutional Court, gender-based violence is a form of violence that is rooted in dominant gender relations stemming from historical power imbalances. Colombian rural women and girls were overwhelmingly victimized by armed conflict actors (i.e. guerrilla, military, paramilitary). The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, plus (LGBTQIA+) population also suffered from violence motivated by biases towards diverse sexual orientations and identities. Rape, sexual assault, torture and reproductive violence are among the most documented and commonly studied acts of violence against gender-based violence victims. Reports show different dimensions of sexual violence in Colombia, ranging from violence used for social control to sexual slavery and violence within armed operations and armed forces.
Gender-based violence is driven by inequalities, disparities, and acts of discrimination based on gender. However, sexual and physical violence is not the only form in which gender-based violence manifests. Some of these inequalities manifest in less access to financial resources and land ownership, food and housing insecurity, displacement, as well as physical and sexual acts of violence.
Climate change can intensify these pre-existing inequalities. For instance, climate change impacts water availability, affecting food security. Women, particularly rural women, tend to work closer to the land. When faced with water scarcity, women will need to travel longer distances to access water sources, exposing them to situations of violence. Moreover, the LQBTQIA+ population tend to be ignored in measures addressing the aftermath of climate-related natural disasters due to biases around heteronormative family compositions, leading to, for instance, housing insecurity. Furthermore, climate change can also lead to forced displacement, increasing vulnerability to housing insecurity, as well as sexual and physical violence.
The current state of environmental peacebuilding in Colombia
The armed conflict’s roots in environmental-related issues deeply influence the peacebuilding process. In Colombia, environmental peacebuilding translates into addressing the root causes while simultaneously coping with the devastating effects of the climate crisis. Further, the complexity of the Colombian case heightens because, in addition to the ongoing peacebuilding process with FARC-EP, other illegal armed groups continue to affect the security of the country’s inhabitants, which intensifies the gender-based violence against marginalized communities including women, girls and the LGBTQIA+ population.
As a result, the current Colombian government placed a significant focus on the so-called “Total Peace”, with the primary objective of achieving peace through negotiation with the remaining illegal armed groups, which includes ELN guerrilla, FARC dissidents, paramilitaries, and criminal bands. The statutory definition of “Total Peace” encompasses a participatory, broad, inclusive, and comprehensive State policy in negotiation, dialogue, and justice processes. It also covers their implementation, including the ongoing peacebuilding process with FARC-EP.“Total Peace” is envisioned as a state policy that guarantees human rights and differential, gender, ethnic, cultural, territorial, and intersectional focus in peace-related public policies.
The process has been successful to some extent. A ceasefire was negotiated with ELN, followed by an agreement to negotiate peace with FARC dissidents. More importantly, these negotiations have emphasized the significance of meaningful civil society participation. This presents a new opportunity for inclusion in the negotiation processes, particularly regarding victims of gender-based violence. Victims of gender-based violence, which includes women, girls and the LQBTQIA+ population, could play a vital role in the peace process, considering their knowledge and experience at the intersection of internal armed conflict and climate change.
Furthermore, as the peacebuilding process with FARC-EP continues, bringing in their situated knowledge could allow for a more comprehensive understanding of the realities of those at the worse end of the conflict. A gender and intersectional focus could help achieve a stable, lasting peace that guarantees non-repetition and human security.
Moving forward: an opportunity for inclusion
The Colombian peacebuilding process is full of challenges. The country is building peace with one armed group while other armed groups continue to perpetuate violence against the Colombian population. Negotiations to reach an agreement with these other groups present an opportunity to achieve total peace. Nevertheless, this “total peace” needs to be mindful of the realities experienced by the Colombian population, especially marginalized communities. In addition to the peace crisis, marginalized people are experiencing the devastating effects of climate change. Moreover, both crises have the potential to intensify gender-based violence in a country weakened by decades of armed conflict.
As previously mentioned, climate change heightens the risk of experiencing gender-based violence due to pre-existing inequalities and biases. Understanding climate change’s complex interlinkages with gender-based violence is not an easy task. However, analyzing and addressing gender-based violence through the lens of the gendered impacts of climate change allows us to recenter the voices of women, girls and the LGBTQIA+ population amid the peacebuilding process. Understanding how climate change amplifies and intersects with other categories of oppression allows a more comprehensive read of the Colombian reality during peacebuilding, which could prove vital in achieving “total peace”.
Natalia Urzola
Natalia Urzola is an SJD student at Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. In 2020, she obtained her LL.M. from the University of California, Berkeley. Natalia is the Chief Operating Officer at the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment and the Colombian Rapporteur of the Sabin Center's Global Peer Reviewers' Network of Climate Litigation. Her recent publications include Common but differentiated constitutionalism: Does environmental Constitutionalism offer realistic policy options for improving UN environmental Law and Governance? US and Latin American Perspectives (with Erin Daly and Maria A. Tigre, Brill) and Gender in Climate Litigation in Latin America: Epistemic Justice Through a Feminist Lens (Journal of Human Rights Practice).
María Paula González
María is a specialist in mining and oil and gas law, with an LLM in environmental law and policy. Her research focuses on the study and application of sustainable development goals and climate change. María works as a senior researcher at Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad, an environmental NGO in Colombia.
