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Colombia’s long road toward peace : implications for environmental human rights defenders

Krause, Torsten LU ; Zelli, Fariborz LU orcid ; Vargas Falla, Ana Maria LU orcid ; Samper, Juan Antonio LU and Sjöstedt, Britta LU (2025) In Ecology and Society 30(1).
Abstract
Human rights defenders, social leaders, and environmental and indigenous activists fight for political, cultural, social, economic, and environmental rights and often face intimidation and violence as a consequence. In this article, we analyze how the implementation of the peace agreement signed in 2016 between the government of Colombia and the FARC-EP guerrilla group affects environment and human rights defenders (EHRD) in Colombia. Despite the expectation of a more peaceful future following the peace agreement, EHRD have faced increased intimidation and violence in Colombia, making it the most dangerous country for EHRD globally. We seek to understand this counter-intuitive development through Fraser’s theory of social justice that... (More)
Human rights defenders, social leaders, and environmental and indigenous activists fight for political, cultural, social, economic, and environmental rights and often face intimidation and violence as a consequence. In this article, we analyze how the implementation of the peace agreement signed in 2016 between the government of Colombia and the FARC-EP guerrilla group affects environment and human rights defenders (EHRD) in Colombia. Despite the expectation of a more peaceful future following the peace agreement, EHRD have faced increased intimidation and violence in Colombia, making it the most dangerous country for EHRD globally. We seek to understand this counter-intuitive development through Fraser’s theory of social justice that stresses the need for integrated measures to address economic, political, and cultural injustices in parallel. The theory argues that a focus on correcting cultural misrecognition and political underrepresentation of vulnerable groups may, paradoxically, mask or even facilitate further injustices, if that focus is not matched by sufficient efforts to address economic maldistribution. The fate of EHRD since the peace agreement reflects such an imbalance in justice priorities, which is in the way of lasting and sustainable peace. Drawing on data from secondary sources, ethnographic interviews, and an analysis of policies and laws, we find that, since the peace agreement was signed, new forms of maldistribution have emerged and solidified in the country, including land grabbing, displacement of local populations, resource extraction, and illicit economies, which are strongly related to the growing influx of drug cartels. Despite the increasing advocacy of international organizations and regional legal agreements to protect EHRD, they are caught in precarious roles between cultural recognition and political and economic abandonment by state institutions and are affected by the global trade in illicit products, and the demand for land for agricultural products and minerals. This finding, we argue, warrants more research into the imbalance of addressing local and global injustices during peace processes and its fatal implications for EHRD in Colombia and globally. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Colombian Peace Agreemen, deforestation, environmental justice, scazú Agreement, Putumayo, social leaders, violence
in
Ecology and Society
volume
30
issue
1
article number
21
pages
17 pages
publisher
Resilience Alliance
external identifiers
  • scopus:86000072900
ISSN
1708-3087
DOI
10.5751/ES-15206-300121
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0c319600-dedd-4948-9dfd-006a987e7b08
date added to LUP
2025-02-26 12:37:02
date last changed
2025-07-03 09:59:29
@article{0c319600-dedd-4948-9dfd-006a987e7b08,
  abstract     = {{Human rights defenders, social leaders, and environmental and indigenous activists fight for political, cultural, social, economic, and environmental rights and often face intimidation and violence as a consequence. In this article, we analyze how the implementation of the peace agreement signed in 2016 between the government of Colombia and the FARC-EP guerrilla group affects environment and human rights defenders (EHRD) in Colombia. Despite the expectation of a more peaceful future following the peace agreement, EHRD have faced increased intimidation and violence in Colombia, making it the most dangerous country for EHRD globally. We seek to understand this counter-intuitive development through Fraser’s theory of social justice that stresses the need for integrated measures to address economic, political, and cultural injustices in parallel. The theory argues that a focus on correcting cultural misrecognition and political underrepresentation of vulnerable groups may, paradoxically, mask or even facilitate further injustices, if that focus is not matched by sufficient efforts to address economic maldistribution. The fate of EHRD since the peace agreement reflects such an imbalance in justice priorities, which is in the way of lasting and sustainable peace. Drawing on data from secondary sources, ethnographic interviews, and an analysis of policies and laws, we find that, since the peace agreement was signed, new forms of maldistribution have emerged and solidified in the country, including land grabbing, displacement of local populations, resource extraction, and illicit economies, which are strongly related to the growing influx of drug cartels. Despite the increasing advocacy of international organizations and regional legal agreements to protect EHRD, they are caught in precarious roles between cultural recognition and political and economic abandonment by state institutions and are affected by the global trade in illicit products, and the demand for land for agricultural products and minerals. This finding, we argue, warrants more research into the imbalance of addressing local and global injustices during peace processes and its fatal implications for EHRD in Colombia and globally.}},
  author       = {{Krause, Torsten and Zelli, Fariborz and Vargas Falla, Ana Maria and Samper, Juan Antonio and Sjöstedt, Britta}},
  issn         = {{1708-3087}},
  keywords     = {{Colombian Peace Agreemen; deforestation; environmental justice; scazú Agreement; Putumayo; social leaders; violence}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Resilience Alliance}},
  series       = {{Ecology and Society}},
  title        = {{Colombia’s long road toward peace : implications for environmental human rights defenders}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-15206-300121}},
  doi          = {{10.5751/ES-15206-300121}},
  volume       = {{30}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}