Peace as plural: the differential approach in the Colombian peace accords

Sara Koopman, Tampere Peace Research Institute

Peace means and requires different things for different groups of people. The Colombian accords are the first in the world to recognize that those already marginalized because of age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and other categories suffered differently during the war, and thus need targeted measures to build peace. Drawing on a history of constitutional court decisions in the country, this is called a differential approach. But this aspect was added to the accords at the last minute, and while Colombia was in the midst of a homophobic backlash against recent LGBT civil rights wins. The approach was attacked as promoting a ‘gender ideology’, and it played a key role in the popular no vote against the accords. This presentation looks at how and why difference was taken into account into the accords as well as the fight both against and then for keeping this approach, which was changed but kept in the renegotiated accords. It also turns to how this approach is playing out in early implementation of the accords, and argues that full implementation of it will make the accords more likely to succeed in the long term.