Panel Discussion—"Colombia’s JEP Sentences: A Conversation About Their Meaning and Impact on Peacebuilding"

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Location: Live on Zoom and in person, in Colombia, Salón i604, Carrera 5 este n.º 12B -54, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogotá

A colorful ofrenda, or altar, honoring victims, with framed photos, flowers, and candles. A large screen displays a banner for the 55th anniversary of the massacre of El Mozote in El Salvador.  A woman stands at a podium and a small group gathers at the side of the stage.

This panel will be held in Spanish live via Zoom, with English translation.

On Sept. 16 and 18, 2025, Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace — referred to as JEP, its acronym in Spanish — issued its first two rulings imposing restorative sanctions on those most responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed over more than five decades of internal armed conflict in the country. The first ruling addressed the crime of kidnapping carried out under the direction of the last secretariat of former FARC-EP (military and political leaders), while the second focused on extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances committed in the Caribbean region by members of the state armed forces.

Logo for Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, Departamento de Derecho Constitucional.

Register here.

Join this event to hear presentations from JEP magistrates who reflect on the progress and challenges with issuing sanctions, as well as the sanctions' impact on the implementation of Colombia’s Final Peace Agreement and peacebuilding in the country, overall. Humberto Sierra Porto, director of the Department of Constitutional Law at the Universidad Externado de Colombia, will welcome attendees, with Ángela María Ramírez Rincón, executive director of the Barometer Initiative, and Steve Hege, director of The Latin American Institute for Peace & Security (ILAPS), offering opening remarks. The JEP panel presentations will be followed by discussion and Q&A with the audience, both virtual and in person, with the hope that Colombian contributions and experiences can inform and assist other peace and transitional justice processes around the world.

ILAPS logo.  A stylized dove holding an olive branch flies over the shape of South America within a circular border. Below, "INSTITUTO LATINOAMERICANO PARA LA PAZ Y LA SEGURIDAD."

This event is organized by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, part of the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, the Universidad Externado de Colombia, and The Latin American Institute for Peace & Security.

Panelists:

  • Alejandro Ramelli Arteaga, President, Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP)
  • Ana Manuela Ochoa Arias, Magistrate, First Instance Chamber in Cases of Acknowledgement of Truth and Responsibility
  • Camilo Suárez Aldana, Magistrate, First Instance Chamber in Cases of Acknowledgment of Truth and Responsibility

Moderator:

  • Gloria Castrillón, The Latin American Institute for Peace & Security (ILAPS)

Register here.

Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.