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).
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.
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.
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.
ICIP and the internodal gender group, in support of the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition, have produced, together with Alharaca Radio Feminista, “Semillantes,” a series of five podcasts about Colombian women in exile and the diaspora.
The podcasts will be released weekly, every Friday in July, to preserve the memory of the women who were forced to leave the South American country due to the armed conflict.
According to Sílvia Plana, head of the project at ICIP, these podcasts “seek to highlight the main impacts suffered by the women who were forced to leave Colombia, as well as to recognize the resilient and transformative processes that have been carried out from abroad. The underlying idea is that without women’s voices, the truth is not complete,” she says.
The podcasts have been produced by Alharaca Radio Feminista, a project launched in April 2019 and developed entirely by women.
Their website is a platform of open microphones where any woman can participate. They currently have collaborators in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Spain, Kazakhstan, Uruguay, the United States, Chile and Indonesia.
Five complimentary episodes
The first episode of “Semillantes” will be released on Friday 2 July on ICIP and Alharaca Radio Feminista websites. The remaining episodes will be available on the 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th of the same month.
“In these five podcasts, the women participants intertwine, through their voices and spirit, taking us on different journeys. They tell us what their lives have been like, through stories, experiences, rhythms, wisdom and emotions,” explain the producers.
“With the podcasts, we can continue building support and sisterhood networks among ourselves and contribute to the dissemination and awareness of the mandate of the Truth Commission of Colombia in Europe and the cross-cutting gender approach,” they add.
Participants in the episodes include Colombian women who now live in Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Ecuador, Spain, Italy and Sweden.
The podcasts can also be found on a special webpage of Alharaca Radio Feminista.
The five episodes have been arranged as follows: two specials called “Comadres,” two audio collages and a music special.
The “Comadres” episodes recount the encounter between two women who have things in common but do not know each other. In this case, two exiled women living in different countries talk about their experiences.
The audio collages compile the views of various women who talk about their experiences by responding to a series of open-ended questions.
Finally, the music special features the experiences of various exiled Colombian women who have chosen to use their voices and compose songs to tell their stories.
“Semillantes” has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of the internodal gender group in support of the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition and the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation (ACCD).
To help the Colombian exile to get out of anonymity. This is the main goal of the documentary Reescribiendo el exilio (Rewriting exile), a film produced by ICIP and the Colombian Truth Commission.
The 21-minute film tells the stories of the children of Colombian exiles who live in different European countries and who, as a consequence of the Colombian armed conflict, grew up – or were born – in other territories and cultures.
The documentary was directed by Mónica Granda Restrepo, a Colombian filmmaker and journalist exiled in Switzerland.
“The documentary talks about putting words into this exile because what really happened in Colombia is that these stories are unknown and have been silenced, not only inside the country but also abroad.”
“In Colombia, no one knows that we have exiles and abroad. When I say that I am a Colombian exile, people look at me with a strange face”, said the filmmaker.
Reescribiendo el exilio collects the testimonies of Nicolás, Karim, Alejandra and Andrea and shows images recorded at the second generation meeting held by the Colombian Truth Commission in Bilbao in 2019.
“Since we were little, we’ve had parallel but different stories. It’s something that not everyone understands. During the meeting seen in the documentary, we connected as if we had known each other all our lives.”
“For many of us, it was the first time to see each other. It has been a long process and with a lot of uncertainty, but thanks to these experiences provided by the Colombian Truth Commission, we have been able to understand a little more our personal situation and the situation of the Colombian people”, explained Nicolás Forero Rodríguez, one of the youths featured in the film.
The documentary was premiered on June 5 at an event with the participation of the film’s director and several members of the second-generation group in exile.
During the presentation, the youth talked about the past, present and future of the sons and daughters of those people who had to leave Colombia forcibly.
Reescribiendo el exilio has been possible thanks to the collaboration of the ICIP, the Catalan Agency for Cooperation to the Development and the Colombian Truth Commission.
A group of young people with responsibility in political parties and social organizations in Catalonia participated in a training workshop on organizational leadership skills promoted by ICIP. The goal of the workshop was to strengthen the skills of difficult but respectful dialogue.
In total, they took part in four sessions, of four hours each, on May 14, 15, 21 and 22. The participants were:
According to ICIP director Kristian Herbolzheimer, “global political and social challenges require a new way of understanding leadership and the ability to coexist in a constructive discrepancy.” Herbolzheimer noted that “this exercise generates a different type of conversation than the usual political confrontation and helps to become aware of perspectives different from one’s own.”
After four days of activities, the group gave a very positive assessment of the workshops promoted by ICIP. “These have been a few days of work where different internal, social and organizational conflicts have been raised and through individual and group work we have been able to develop the ideal leadership skills to meet these present and future challenges,” summed up Olympia Arango, vice president of deba-t.org.
The training was based on the Adaptive Leadership methodology developed at Harvard University. The programme brings together a group of people with diverse perspectives and invites them to participate in real-time analysis, reflection and practice exercises. This can involve challenging conversations and ideas that reflect deeply ingrained values and assumptions and clarify how to expand options and capacities for analysis and intervention in political spaces and systems. One of the most significant challenges for participants is presenting and submitting to the group analysis of failed leadership situations.
This programme was promoted by ICIP’s “Social and Political Dialogue” area of work, which aims to offer analysis tools for conflict management and transformation, emphasising promoting dialogue in Catalonia. In this area, ICIP develops various methodological proposals to reach a greater number of people and organizations.
In the photo, standing, from left to right: Ignacio Rigau (Noves Generacions Catalunya), Laura Casado (Jovenes Ciudadanos), Mònica Pujadas (Creu Roja Joventut), Olympia Arango (deba-t.org), Biel López (La Forja) and Marçal Escartín (Jovent Republicà). Sitting, from left to right: Álvaro Clapés-Saganyoles (Joventut Nacionalista de Catalunya), Daniel Martínez (Joventut Socialista de Catalunya), Pablo Jurado (Confluència Jove), Pilar Cortés (Avalot – UGT Jove) and Joan Jordi Abentín (F98).
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.
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.
