The Rejection of the Colombian Peace Agreement: Implications for Colombia and Transitional Justice

The Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism welcomes Claus Kress and Jose Mauricio Gaona.

The civil war between the Colombian government and the FARC has been one of the longest ones after the Second World War. Although rejected by referendum by the Colombian people, the peace agreement would have set a precedent in the field of transitional justice the significance of which goes far beyond Colombia. The talk will offer a few initial international law and legal policy reflections on how the Colombian peace agreement attempted to deal with the tension between peace and justice and the international legal implications of its rejection.

Claus Kress, a professor at the University of Cologne, is an expert on international criminal law, international humanitarian law, and human rights. Director of the Institute for International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne, Professor Kress has represented Germany in state negotiations regarding the International Criminal Court since 1998, and was an External Adviser to the Turkel Commission in 2011-12.  In 2014, he was awarded the M.C. Bassiouni Justice Award for “outstanding academic service to international criminal law."

Jose Mauricio Gaona is an international legal scholar, author, lecturer, and researcher specialized in the areas of international, comparative, constitutional, and human rights law with academic and professional background in the United States, Canada, France, Italy and Latin America (UCLA, McGill, Sorbonne-Assas, Unidroit), as well as highly qualified experience in global research (Yale University, UNIDROIT Rome, BNF Paris, HRC Indianapolis, HACLR Columbus, ASIL Washington), legal engineering, international affairs and government.

Organized by the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism in collaboration with the "Strengthening justice for international crimes: a Canadian Partnership" (SSHRC) group.