Juan Manuel Santos announced that the commission will accompany the implementation of the peace agreement in the country

At the beginning of session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which reaches its 167th edition, the president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, taking advantage that the session was conducted in Bogota, said that IACHR will accompany the coming processes of the post-conflict. The announcement comes after the new peace agreement between the demobilized FARC and the Government of Colombia signed in 2016, at the Teatro Colon in Bogota. The agreement was modified several times due to the result of the plebiscite of October 2, 2016, in which most Colombians disagreed based on the first peace agreement.

Santos said that it is a fact that IACHR will collaborate, diplomatically, in implementing the agreement. In addition, a series of agreements are being processed so that the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS), having as intermediary the IACHR itself, cooperates in a technical manner so that the post-conflict period does not have difficulties in its development stage.

Colombian President expressed his satisfaction saying that with the help provided by the IACHR, to establish closer ties with the Special Court for Peace (JEP, in Spanish) and the Unit Search for missing persons, will be increasingly closer to one of the objectives of the agreement by the end of armed conflict. This objective is the strengthening the Integral System of Truth that includes justice, reparation, and non – repetition of cases of this kind.

"The support of the Inter – American Commission on the implementation of the Agreement is fundamental for the consolidation of peace in our country and strengthening our institutions", said President Santos in his speech in the middle of the session of the IACHR in Bogotá on Thursday 22 February.

The President of the Republic reiterated that he will not forget the commitment that Colombia has with the world, and especially with Latin America. Santos emphasized the hard work, which he has to carry out with the help of the Inter-American Human Rights System, to successfully implement the agreement in Colombian society. The implementation should promote reconciliation in the country and assertiveness acts under the advice that the inter-American institutions dictate.

When concluding his speech, the president recalled a historic event, which was the foundation of the OAS made in 1948 in Bogotá. The president connected this diplomatic moment with the government’s promise of Colombia to always be available to the Inter – American Human Rights System orders.

IACHR session 167, held in Bogotá from February 22 to March 2, will address as main issues the political situation in Venezuela, the legal situation of Peruvian ex – president Alberto Fujimori, the regulation of weapons in United States, among others.

Latin American Post | David García
Translated from “CIDH: Figura central del posconflicto colombiano”