With:

• Belkis Izquierdo Torres, judge for the Chamber for the Acknowledgment of Truth, Responsibility and the Determination of Facts and Conduct of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Colombia
• Lieselotte Viaene, Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain)

In the Colombia Peace Accords, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) has recognized indigenous territories as victims of armed conflict in several of its legal decisions. These groundbreaking decisions invite the human rights and transitional justice communities to deeply rethink their conceptualization of human life, since they recognize that human beings are not the only living beings who can be damaged and violated - with the rights to justice and reparation in the context of the transitional justice processes.    

Event co-sponsored by the Environmental Studies program, the Biology Department, and the Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology program at the Lynch School.

Spanish to English translation will be provided.

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Belkis Izquierdo Torres is an indigenous Arhuaca lawyer. She has a law degree from the National University of Colombia, and a Master’s degree in Public Administration with emphasis on governance and public policy from the Superior School of Public Administration in Colombia. She is currently a judge for the Chamber for the Acknowledgment of Truth, Responsibility and the Determination of Facts and Conduct of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP, in Spanish), and coordinator of the Ethnic-Racial Commission of the JEP, in Colombia.  She has worked as assistant judge in the Superior Judiciary Council, as advisor to the President of Colombia, as consultant to the UN Development Program and as a legal consultant for various public and private organizations.

Lieselotte Viaene is a Belgian anthropologist with a PhD in Law. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), and is the Principal Investigator of RIVERS - Water/human rights beyond the human? Indigenous water ontologies, plurilegal encounters and interlegal translation (2019-2024), financed by the European Research Council (ERC).  As human rights practitioner, she worked, among others, at the Office of United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) in Ecuador (2010-2013) were she was responsible for the areas of collective rights and transitional justice. For more than 15 years she has collaborated with indigenous people in Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala and Perú on themes of transitional justice, intercultural human rights, legal pluralism and the rights of indigenous people.  

RIVERS project website: www.rivers-ercproject.eu

Register for Zoom link either at the red Register button in the event listing or at https://bccte.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jQSEDOsuSheqgQjEBJ4iGA