On April 12, President Iván Duque will speak at the regular session of the UN Security Council and will present the progress made towards the implementation of the Final Peace Agreement. The news was released by the United Kingdom Ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, who is also the President of the Security Council.
The president will speak after the Verification Mission of the same organization made its presentation regarding what was observed in Colombia in its first quarterly report of 2022. Ivan Duque will be accompanied by the Vice President and Foreign Minister, Marta Lucía Ramírez; Colombia's Ambassador to the UN, Guillermo Fernández de Soto, and the Presidential Advisor for Stabilization and Consolidation, Emilio Archila.
Duque will present the progress made in the Victims Act and the support it has given to 12,826 former members of the extinct FARC, by extending until 2031 the benefits that were extinguished in August 2019. “8,556 ex-combatants have a productive project or an economic enterprise. This is done through 4,063 individual and collective projects”, reported the Presidency of the Republic.
The head of state also commented that, “358,000 individual compensation (administrative and judicial) has been awarded with an investment of 3.08 billion pesos”. Meanwhile, in the process of reintegration, he highlighted the Development Programs with a Territorial Focus, which have served to improve the lives of 6.6 million people in 170 municipalities affected by violence.
With regard to illicit crops, the national Government indicated that it has managed 1.8 billion pesos to benefit the 100,000 families linked to the Illicit Crop Substitution Programme from August 2018 to 28 February 2022.
“Peace with legality is a reality, and it is good that we understand that, since we have no owners and are also part of a collective construction, that we recognize what is being built together: Colombia's triumphs belong to all citizens, and here all that matters is that when peace is built we are sowing joy in our hearts of each citizen”, assured the president.
Report of the UN Verification Mission
On Monday, the quarterly report on the implementation of the Final Peace Agreement in Colombia of the UN Security Council was also released. The document contains what was observed by the UN Verification Mission between 28 December 2021 and 25 March 2022.
As noted, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights received reports of 43 murders of social leaders and 25 massacres. It also recorded that 13,821 people suffered from forced displacement and 48,331 Colombians were confined, of whom more than 42,000 belong to indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities in Chocó.
On the other hand, the UN stressed that they were “the first in which people from conflict-affected regions vote for the Special Transitional Peace Constituencies (CITREP).” At the same time, they pointed out that during the elections most of the members who belonged to the extinct FARC were able to exercise their right to vote.
In terms of economic and social reintegration, the document states that about 63 per cent of ex-combatants participate in individual or collective projects. The UN emphasized that most of the more than 13,000 ex-combatants continue in the process of reintegration “into civilian life despite the significant challenges they face” such as insecurity in the territories in which they live.
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