Historical Injustice and Socio-Economic Rights in Colombian Constitutional Jurisprudence

Abstract

Abstract This chapter focuses on the case law of the Colombian Constitutional Court on socio-economic rights in which the petitioners are victims of forced displacement. It explores the extent to which historical injustice has been considered when interpreting those rights and when developing procedural safeguards and remedies. This is necessary given that the violations of these rights are not only as a result of their infringement within a context of armed conflict but is also about the historical disregard and marginalisation by political powers of rural populations from development and material citizenship. The analysis concludes that although the Court has gone far beyond what has been done previously for other socio-economic rights’ holders, it does not use ‘past injustice’ as a significant reason for its decisions. This is despite the fact that ‘past injustice’ forms a strong and persuasive justification for its transformative jurisprudence. Rather, it is the ‘present injustice’ which forms the basis for addressing victim injustice.