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London: Women's conference on anniversary of Colombia peace deal


On the first anniversary of the historic signing of a Peace Agreement between the Colombian Government and the country's largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a group of Colombian women are in London urging the international community to ensure the agreement fulfils its promises to women.

The Colombian peace deal is the first in the world to seriously address women rights, but hard-won achievements by women in peace accords have historically failed to be implemented.

"We are calling on the international community to monitor the implementation of the agreements that support women's rights" said Louise Winstanley, Programme and Advocacy Manager at human rights group ABColombia.

"Given the horrendous abuses committed against women during the conflict, respect for women's rights must be at the heart of rebuilding a peaceful country.

"The UK Government has taken a leading role globally on the issue of conflict-related sexual violence, and we are now calling on it to support women victims and women's organisations by closely monitoring the full implementation of Colombia's Peace Agreement."

ABColombia, a partner of UK aid agency CAFOD, has invited Colombian women who were key players in achieving the gender-sensitive agreement, to London from 20 - 26 November to take part in an international conference.

Around 97% of peace accords worldwide have seen just 15% of their agreements implemented. In the case of Colombia, a report released last week by the Kroc Institute found that as of 31 August 2017, 94% of the points relating to gender in the Colombian peace agreement had not been fully implemented.

Janneth Lozano, Director of CAFOD's Colombian partner, CODACOP, said: "Colombian women do not want to see the important gains they achieved in the Peace Agreement on violence against women, equality, land rights and political participation disappear or fail to be implemented."

Among other things, significant gains achieved by Colombia's women's movement include the creation of a gender sub-commission to review all documents issued as part of the peace process, and for sexual violence to be recognised as a crime committed in the context of the armed conflict and directly related to the war.

Janneth Lozano is Director of the Grassroots Community Support Corporation (Codacop). She works with indigenous communities in Colombia to empower women so that they can enjoy autonomy over their lives and resources. Janneth recently participated in a UN Women event in New York, as part of the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

ABColombia is the joint advocacy project of five leading British and Irish organisations with programmes in Colombia: CAFOD, Christian Aid UKI, Oxfam GB, SCIAF and Trócaire. Amnesty International and PBI are observers. ABColombia members work with over one hundred partner organisations in Colombia.

The public conference 'Colombia Securing Peace: Women's Achievements and the Challenges Ahead' takes place on 22 November 2017 at Senate House, London. Colombian women activists, international policy-makers and experts will speak at the conference, organised by ABColombia in association with the Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution (NOREF). Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, UK Minister of State, will be one of the keynote speakers.

Sign up for the event and download the full conference programme and list of speakers from ABColombia's website: www.abcolombia.org.uk/event/colombia-womens-achievements-conference/

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