Author: Chema

ICIP has presented a new monograph of the digital magazine Peace in Progress dedicated to violence in non-war settings. The publication coincides with the release of the new digital version of the magazine, a completely revamped platform with a new design that makes it easier to consult all the issues published so far. This latest issue, the number 40, is entitled Violence in non-war settings.

Over the past four years, ICIP has made an effort to focus on these high-intensity situations, which are not related to extremism or classical warfare. They are situations that do not necessarily occur in authoritarian regimes but happen in “failed states” or in the poorest of all, something devastating to millions of people around the world. It is violence linked to organised crime, human trafficking, violence against defenders of the land and the environment, violence against women, and migration crises. This kind of violence is often associated with Latin America, but it is a reality in many other parts of the world.

With the publication of this issue, ICIP wants to contribute to broadening the views and knowledge on these multiple dimensions of violence, making it visible and at the same time giving tools to the people and groups who work to deal with it. Ours is a peacebuilding look that seeks to understand this violence’s dynamics and to know its actors based on a multidimensional reading of the phenomenon.

The authors

The monograph consists of 8 articles and an interview. The authors participating are: Ana Glenda Tager (Alianza por la Paz), Roger Mac Ginty (Durham Global Security Institute), José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez (Autonomous University of Tlaxcala, Mexico), Carolina Ricardo (Instituto Sou da Paz ), Mohamed Daghar (ENACT), Esperanza Hernández Delgado (La Salle University, Colombia), Jordi Mir (Pompeu Fabra University) and Sabina Puig (ICIP).

The monograph also includes an interview with Mary Kaldor, an expert in war, peace and security studies. The coordination was carried out by Sabina Puig, head of the ‘Violence in non-war settings’ area of ICIP.

On May 12, ICIP will hold a virtual magazine presentation on Twitter. The session will feature the participation of the authors Carolina Ricardo and José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez.

New design

With the release of this issue, the 40th edition, the magazine launches a new digital platform completely renewed and integrated into the ICIP website. The team responsible for the new design is Whads.

The renovation aims to open a new stage to consolidate the magazine’s trajectory and increase its scope and projection.

Based on articles, lectures and debates, Peace in Progress magazine offers a broad and multifaceted look at issues affecting peacebuilding. The aim is to contribute to the public discussion and provide content, diagnosis and proposals.

The magazine has published monographs on dialogue in polarised societies, drugs and violence in Latin America, missing persons, and the need to reorient security from feminism.

Check the new magazine here.

Representatives of the different European working groups (‘nodos’ in Spanish) supporting the Truth Commission in Colombia have participated in a meeting from April 7 to 10 at the UNESCO House in Barcelona.

The meeting, convened by the ICIP as Technical Secretariat of the Commission in Europe, brought together around fifty representatives from the ‘nodos’ of Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

This is the fourth meeting of this type organised and the first held in person in the last two years after the previous activities were carried out virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. The meeting had the support of the Catalan Agency for Cooperation to the Development (Agència Catalana de Cooperació al Desenvolupament – ACCD).

According to one of the meeting organisers, ICIP technician Sílvia Plana, it has served to “meet again and strengthen our collaboration and trust. Likewise, we have been able to take stock of what the more than three years of support process for the Commission from abroad have implied and coordinate efforts for the presentation and socialisation of the final report that the Commission will deliver on June 28,” she explained.

Commissioner Lucía González Duque and Commissioner Carlos Martín Beristain also participated in this meeting to set the scene for the presentation of the report and coordinate the Commission’s legacy strategy abroad.

According to Martín Beristain, “the meeting has made it possible to articulate the work with the groups in exile and the people who have helped us weave the work from abroad. Now we hope that the final report will be a boost for the transformation that Colombia needs”, he assured.

At the meeting, the participants also talked about the systematisation of the process that has been used in the last three years to collect the testimony of the victims of the Colombian conflict exiled in Europe. At the same time, the role of the groups in exile and their legacy has been reflected upon once the commission concludes its mandate.

The meeting also served to commemorate the National Day of Memory and Solidarity with the Victims of the Armed Conflict in Colombia on April 9. The ICIP organised a commemorative act with the participation of the institution’s director, Kristian Herbolzheimer; the Director-General for the Catalan Agency for Cooperation to the Development, Josep Desquens; and the two commissioners attending the meeting.

During the act, two of the victims’ representatives, Adriana Quintero Úsuga and Albeiro Moya Mena, read a statement approved by all those present. You can read the text of the declaration here (in Spanish).

The Colombian singer-songwriter resident in Barcelona, Marta Gómez, was in charge of closing the activity by interpreting some songs.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, various rallies and demonstrations have been organized in Barcelona and elsewhere in Catalonia.

On Wednesday, March 2, Barcelona said: “No to war”.

The massive outcry that made the city vibrate 18 years ago against the US attack on Iraq has now been revived by another unilateral intervention, the Russian Army against Ukraine.

The anti-war platform Stop the War (Plataforma Aturem la Guerra) organized the rally with the support of more than 300 entities.

According to the Guardia Urbana, the concentration brought together 3,500 people.

In the protest, the journalist and activist David Fernández and the actress Cristina Brondo read the manifesto published by the platform.

The manifesto expresses itself against “the current military aggression of the Russian government against the Ukrainian population” and expresses solidarity with the citizens of Ukraine.

“Beyond the shows of solidarity and declarations of condemnation, it is necessary to take action to stop the violence. We are facing the worst eco-social crisis in history, and wars aggravate this situation because they generate destruction and greater pollution, events incompatible with life. We need our governments to act to stop the escalation of warmongering before falling into a war of devastating proportions,” says the manifesto.

The Aturem la Guerra Platform was born with the war in Iraq in 2003. On February 15 of that year, the city starred in one of the largest demonstrations in the world against the war in Iraq.

The Ukrainian community is protesting

On Sunday, March 6, the Ukrainian community living in Barcelona called another demonstration in Plaça Catalunya.

Several hundred people (about eight hundred, according to the Guardia Urbana) rallied to demand an end to the war that began with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and for NATO to establish an exclusion zone in the area that prevent flight of planes from Russia.

The protesters, who carried Ukrainian flags and numerous banners calling for an end to the war and a no-fly zone, observed a minute’s silence for the victims of the war.

Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona has become the daily meeting point for Ukrainians since the outbreak of the war. People with Ukrainian flags gather every afternoon and several camp in the area at night.

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ICIP strongly condemns Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, which began this morning. The onslaught of Russian forces is unprecedented in European territory. In addition to its humanitarian, economic, political and environmental consequences, it will have a disastrous impact on peace-building efforts in Ukraine, Europe, and the world.

Russia has started a war that ends nine years of efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in the Ukrainian region of Donbas. The invasion blew up the 2014 Minsk Accords, which created a ceasefire and a roadmap for resolving the war. Also, it sweeps away citizen initiatives for social and political dialogue, human rights advocacy and criticism of authoritarianism in Ukraine and Russia.

At the same time, the attack is destroying Europe’s conflict prevention architecture, based on the concept of “shared security” and dialogue within the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It breaks the fragile international consensus on the need to prioritize diplomacy to resolve conflicts.

“The European Union and NATO have not had the vision, ambition and generosity to design a security architecture outside of militarism and the idea of the external enemy for the last thirty years”, said Kristian Herbolzheimer, director of the ICIP. “But Russia’s action is hampering any critical initiative with the prevailing security model, and instead of disarming Europe, we are embarking on a new arms race”. This is a scenario that is even more worrying given Russia’s nuclear capacity and the existence of fifteen atomic reactors in Ukraine.

Given this situation, it is necessary to demand weapons to stop immediately to protect the civilian population. At the same time, it is essential to avoid the warlike dynamics of building the image of the enemy: “Putin is not Russia. Putin has embarked on a war adventure that could end up plaguing the Russian people themselves”, said the ICIP director.

In the field of peacebuilding, we reaffirm that war can never be an option. In the face of today’s scenario in Ukraine, courage, creativity and social support are needed to find alternatives to the weapons based on the concept of shared security.

📌ICIP statement on Russia’s military attack on #Ukraine.

"ICIP strongly condemns Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine which it will have a disastrous impact on peacebuilding efforts all over the world" ➡️https://t.co/CWUQLgYAoi pic.twitter.com/XwR7rOI82V

— ICIP (@ICIPeace) February 24, 2022

ICIP has released two songs composed by 120 victims who left Colombia because of the armed conflict, and the Colombian singer-songwriter based in Barcelona, Marta Gómez. This innovative initiative of citizen participation was promoted by the Truth Commission of Colombia.

The proposal for this project came from the Catalunya Node, a meeting and coordination space for organizations that support the work of the Commission. The Node has led the task of taking 120 testimonies from victims of the conflict living in Catalonia (out of more than a thousand interviews that have been conducted worldwide).

“It is essential to accompany the victim interviews with psychosocial support measures; that is why we decided to organize these workshops. We wanted to turn emotions and experiences into music with the aim of strengthening healing through an artistic exercise,” explains Helga Flamtermesky, one of the Catalunya Node interviewers. “Art is a great tool to process traumatic events such as exile and migration,” says ICIP member Ana Isabel Barrera. “During the interviews, we realized that people not only talked about what they felt living outside of Colombia, but also asked questions about the country,” she added.

Two songs, two audiovisuals

This observation inspired the creation of two songs that complement each other. The first one, “Surcos de amor,” talks about the relationship that the victims have with Colombia in their imagination. The second one, “Vuelve,” is intended as a symbolic response from Colombia to the victims.

The songs are performed by the Colombian singer-songwriter based in Catalonia, Marta Gómez. The artist was one of the people in charge of leading the workshops that she remembers in a very special way:

“The workshops were a gift to my soul. At first I thought it would be very difficult to try to compose a song with people who had never written one, but it ended up being a magical experience,” she says.

“In the end, all those people who told me shyly at the beginning of the workshop that they wouldn’t know what to say ended up becoming creative writers, capable of expressing everything they had experienced and suffered through, turning it into poetry,” she adds.

The two songs that were created will be published on Spotify, in an EP entitled “Canciones de ida y vuelta.” But the process has also resulted in two audiovisual products: a documentary and a music video.

The producer, Iván Guarnizo, has recorded the creative process of producing the songs in a short documentary entitled “Tejiendo canciones.”  About this process he says: “The documentary is about a collective creative process. We witness how the participants get to know each other and, together, weave the song until the singer-songwriter records it in a studio.”

In addition, Karolina Villarraga, of the MicuFilm production company, won a public competition to produce a music video for “Vuelve.” She decided to film an animated video starring a masked mother bear and her bear cub.

“We chose the masked bear, an emblematic animal of Colombia, as a symbolic character and protagonist of the narrative, bearing in mind that the armed conflict also affects the environment,” explains the person in charge of the music video.

The two songs, the documentary and the music video were presented on 17 September at 8pm in an online event where the artists talked about the creative process.

The ICIP Library reopens to the public from this week after the summer holidays and the temporary closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In this new season, the centre will be open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Therefore, at this time, users can renew or repay loans and consult the available fund, which reaches 9,000 volumes.

Likewise, users can contact the centre via email at biblioteca@icip.cat to resolve queries and doubts.

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The ICIP Library is a reference centre in Catalonia specializing in the culture of peace, non-violence, security and conflict.

The Library is located at 10 Tapineria Street, 1st floor of Barcelona. It supports ICIP and researchers and experts in peace and is in constant contact with similar institutions and centres worldwide.

The centre is part of the Generalitat’s network of specialized libraries and is part of the Collective Catalog of Catalan Universities (CCUC).

You can check the online catalog here.

In the municipal plenary session of Friday, 30 July, the City Council of Lleida passed a motion recognising Colombian exiles and migrants living in the city and surrounding area.

The proposal received the support of all the Council’s political groups: ERC-AM, PSC, JxCat Lleida, Comú de Lleida, Cs, and PP, all voted in favour of the motion.

This initiative was launched by the Coordinating Committee of Development NGOs and other solidarity movements in Lleida in coordination with the Catalonia Node in support of the Truth Commission of Colombia and ICIP (International Catalan Institute for Peace).

According to Carme Campoy, board member of the Coordinating Committee of Development NGOs, “the work of the Colombian diaspora – about 3,000 migrants and exiles in Lleida – is an example to follow to promote coexistence, social cohesion and peace.”

“It is essential that the citizens of Lleida and its institutions recognize and support the work towards the building of a stable and lasting peace in Colombia by the diaspora and the victims of the armed conflict living in the city,” she added.

👏 El #PlePaeria dona suport unànime a la moció per reconèixer a l’exili i la diàspora colombiana 🇨🇴 a #Lleida.

Moció impulsada per la @CoordONGDLleida, amb el Node Catalunya de suport a la @ComisionVerdadC i l’@ICIPeace

— Ajuntament de Lleida (@paerialleida) July 30, 2021

The dignity of the victims

The motion that has passed focuses on the dignity of the victims and ensures that their processes of resistance and resilience, and their contributions to peace in Colombia and Lleida, are publicly recognized by institutions and host societies.

The approved text “recognizes the contributions of civil society organizations in Lleida to a sustainable and lasting peace in Colombia and support of the Colombian migrant and exiled community.”  It was also agreed to hold a meeting with representatives of the Colombian diaspora and exiles, together with solidarity organizations in Lleida, “to publicly recognize their dignity, work and contributions to peace in Colombia and their host community.”

According to the local census, 2,952 Colombians (1,553 women and 1,399 men) live in Lleida, which amounts to 2.1% of the city’s population.

During the last few months, ICIP and the Catalonia Node have organized several workshops with the Colombian community of Lleida, in coordination with the Department of Education, Cooperation, Civil Rights and Feminism of the Lleida City Council and the Coordinating Committee of Development NGOs.  These workshops provided information about the peace process in Colombia and victims’ rights. Also, they identified the specific needs of the Colombian community in the capital of the comarca of El Segrià.

One of the people who participated in this process is Marina Camargo Jinete, a victim of the conflict who has lived in Alcarràs for three years.  In the presentation of the motion in the plenary session, Camargo spoke of her experience as an exile in El Segrià:

“The Colombian community living in Lleida is very grateful for the warm welcome and hospitality we have received.  We are here to say thank you on behalf of the refugees.  For the Colombian community, this motion is like a tree that gives us shelter and a feeling of belonging, protection and welcoming among the Catalan people,” she said.

María Rosario Vásquez, the spokeswoman of the Catalonia Node, also participated in the plenary session and ended her speech by talking about the restorative effect this motion has for victims living in Catalonia.

An educational process led by ICIP

ICIP was one of the main promoters of the motion that passed on Friday.  The institution has acted as the Technical Secretariat of the Truth Commission of Colombia since 2018.  Its role is to enable any victim of the conflict to provide their testimony and reconstruct historical memory and reconciliation.  It also works to familiarize host societies with the peace process in Colombia and the Colombian people who live among us.  With this goal in mind, fifteen spaces for citizen participation called “nodes” have been created in ten European countries, with the Catalonia node being one of the most active.

In this context, ICIP has proposed the promotion of municipal motions in support of victims living abroad.  Lleida has become the first city to support this initiative and has thus become an international model for other cities and international institutions.

“There is little awareness that people are living among us who have been victims of war and who have had to rebuild their social and professional life in a foreign country.  We want to recognize the courage and dignity of these people and facilitate their integration in Lleida,” says Ana Isabel Barrera, also a Colombian victim and a technician in ICIP’s area of Memory, Coexistence and Reconciliation.

A historic peace agreement

After fifty years of war, on 26 September 2016, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group signed a historic Peace Agreement.

As a result of the Agreement, the Commission for the Clarification of the Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition was created to identify the causes of the armed conflict and guarantee the right of victims and society to truth, justice and reparation and thus prevent new wars.  The Commission will present its report at the end of this year.

According to the Truth Commission, of the more than five million Colombians living abroad, at least 500,000 are war victims.

The ICIP, in collaboration with the Nido Catalunya in support of the Colombian Truth Commission, has organized in Lleida, with the support of the City Council, a couple of workshops to promote the recognition of the victims of the Colombian conflict exiled in Catalonia.

These workshops are a pilot test that will soon be extended to Barcelona and are expected to adapt in other municipalities in Catalonia and Europe.

The workshops took place at the Balàfia Civic Center on April 24 and May 16. The first of the workshops focused on the comprehensive system of truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition for Colombian people living in Catalonia. The second focused on recognition to make visible the impacts of the Colombian armed conflict and the migration process of exiled people and contribute to the dignification of the victims.

The workshops aim to provide a general context and sufficient tools to understand and recognize the comprehensive system and spaces for participation for victims abroad.

“They seek to generate and strengthen spaces for participation, dialogue and listening among the exiled population and the Colombian diaspora, social organizations and local governments that contribute to actions of recognition to the victims of the Colombian armed conflict”, explains Ana Isabel Osorio, a technician in the area of “Memory, coexistence and reconciliation” of the ICIP.

The activity was facilitated by Maria del Rosario Vásquez and Bibiana Lopera of the Nido Catalunya, supporting the Colombian Truth Commission.

.@paerialleida promou un taller per sensibilitzar el conflicte que es viu a Colòmbia i empoderar víctimes i famílies perquè institucions i ONG articulin eines legals per a reclamar la investigació sobre la violència i persones desaparegudes @montrosilda
👉https://t.co/9Pum5lO3ZL pic.twitter.com/lijGV48a4H

— Ajuntament de Lleida (@paerialleida) May 16, 2021

More workshops in June

A third workshop is planned for June in Lleida.

Following this participatory process, the aim is to have an institutional declaration approved by the City Council of the capital of Segrià to make visible the impacts of the Colombian armed conflict and the migration process of exiled people and contribute to the dignification of victims who had to flee Colombia because of the armed conflict.

Another of these workshops is also planned to be organized in Barcelona in June. These activities aim to strengthen the dialogue between local actors (Colombian population, social organizations and academia and local governments) and contribute to the dissemination of the final report that the Colombian Truth Commission will publish at the end of this year.

The process of recognizing the victims is part of the work carried out by the ICIP as the Technical Secretariat of the Colombian Truth Commission in Europe.

The activities have the support of The Catalan Agency for Cooperation to the Development (Agència Catalana de Cooperació al Desenvolupament – ACCD).