Collective Justice: Ex-Combatants and Community Reparations in Colombia

Abstract

Abstract In conflicts involving non-state armed groups, individualized approaches to transitional justice and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration face significant shortcomings for both victims and ex-combatants. Yet, both transitional justice and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration have had trouble interrogating the tensions between individualized and collective approaches, focusing more on normative debates over the proper balance than on the actual experiences of communities in transition. This paper seeks to advance this debate through empirical research on the local experience of justice and coexistence amid civilian and ex-combatant communities in Colombia. The authors utilized a unique dataset of ‘everyday’ community-based indicators of coexistence and justice in eight civilian and ex-combatant communities in rural Colombia. Using the country’s web of reparations mechanisms, the paper draws a distinction between ‘state-led’ and ‘community-led’ collective justice and proposes that the latter can speak to both civilian and ex-combatant communities’ priorities and lived experiences—and, ultimately, provide a pathway to coexistence. This would stand in contrast to the Colombian state’s current collective reparations projects by speaking directly to the concerns and priorities of both civilian and ex-combatant communities: on the civilian side, to be compensated directly by those who committed acts of violence; and on the ex-combatant side, to be recognized and accepted as a community. Such a community-led model integrating transitional justice and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration processes would serve as a pragmatic middle ground between the individual and state-led collective approaches that dominate transitional justice.