Women and Armed Conflict in Colombia: Anonymous Victims of the War

Pilar Rueda Jiménez, Anthropologist, consultant, United Nations Development Program, with the Rural Women's Office of the Ministry of Agriculture.

In Colombia diverse forms of violence result daily in multiple violations of human rights and infractions of humanitarian law. We have the dishonor of being the country with the highest rate of homicides in the world: 74 homicides for each 100,000 inhabitants, an average that has not changed since 1988. Every year nearly 30,000 people lose their lives in violent events.

Of this total, nearly 13% are victims of violations of the right to life as a result of social and political violence. In 1996 the victims totaled 3,173, an average of nine people each day. Of this total, 192 were women, which means that on average every two days a woman in our country dies for socio-political reasons.

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, women became visible as specific victims of armed conflict because of the increasing displacement of the civilian population by violence. Despite its social magnitude and the effects that forced displacement has had on the civilian population "53% of whom are women, and of these, 36% are heads of household due to changes in the family structure before, during, and after displacement" this is not the only effect of armed conflict on women.

Physical, verbal, sexual, and psychological assaults make up the specific form of violence used against women by armed groups anxious to weaken women's leadership. This violence can also serve as a mechanism of intimidation that attempts to force the women to accede to the armed groups' demands, including bringing them food or information.

The assaults that women face are related to their historical status, suffering discrimination and marginality. The injuries they suffer are not gratuitous: their face or stomach may be slashed, they can be raped, or their children may be harmed. The women are degraded physically and psychologically as women to confirm not only the power of weapons but also of men over women.

The consequences of armed conflict for women are multiple. To prevent them and to address them suitably, it is necessary to make them visible. To tackle this situation and to comply with the agreements adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995), certain coordinated actions have been initiated between government and civil society: the Office of Rural Women, the National Association of Women Farmers and Natives of Colombia, and the National Network for Women. We are creating an awareness of these issues so that policies and actions can be defined that include the following considerations and aims:

1. The sex of the victims, so that their particular needs will be taken into consideration when formulating and carrying out preventive actions and aid.
   

2. Investigating and punishing the persons responsible for violations of the women's human rights.
   
3. Improving the social and economic conditions of women who have been affected by armed conflict, as part of a policy of reparation, empowering their participation in the process of consolidating a culture of peace. For this, the participation of both governmental organizations and civil society is required.
   
4. Precise actions that diminish the risk that armed conflict creates for women, and adopting humanitarian agreements that bind the armed groups to respect the norms of humanitarian law.
   
5. The dissemination of humanitarian law with attention to gender, to guarantee the exercise of women's citizenship and channels for lodging complaints of abuses to which women are subjected to competent and proper authorities.
   
6. Reducing the incidence of the violations of women's human rights in the context of armed conflict.
   
7. Implementing programs for displaced peoples that are holistic and incorporate positive actions aimed at mitigating the conditions of discrimination, marginality, and inequality affecting the processes of consolidation and socioeconomic stabilization.
   
8. Promoting and guaranteeing women's organization and participation in fora to agree upon and adopt policies and programs to prevent and attend to the victims of armed conflict.
   
9. Orienting psychosocial care to processes of resignification that integrate a variety of psychological, cultural, economic, political, and social factors, to facilitate the stabilization and consolidation of displaced peoples.
   
10. Including in the peace negotiations the problems specific to women, increasing their participation in the solution of conflicts and in consolidating cultural peace.
    
11. Incorporating and developing the international recommendations and commitments for human rights, and specifically the rights of women and displaced peoples.

Finally, the reports of the Permanent Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia should include a chapter on the status of women victims of armed conflict and alternatives approaches to prevent and attend to this issue.

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