By Tatiana Sanchez Parra

Despite an active domestic reparation programme in Colombia, children born of conflict-related sexual violence remain largely invisible in the country’s human rights and transitional justice agendas. There are no policies in place to address their situation and needs, and there are no organizations or networks dedicated to working with or for them. How do we explain that those children are there, recognised by the law, part of their mothers’ lives and complex members of their communities, and yet, we don’t seem to see them?

Image: Uncertainty surrounds the implementation of Colombia’s peace agreement following the election of the new government. Credit: Leonfhl:/Flickr

My research focuses on issues of reproductive violence in contexts of armed conflict and political transition, specifically within the context of Colombia’s ongoing armed conflict and its transitional justice system.

To begin with, I’d like to highlight three key aspects for context. Firstly, Colombia has experienced an ongoing armed conflict for over 60 years, during which all armed groups – including left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, government forces, and international troops – have perpetrated various forms of sexual and reproductive violence against the population (civilians and intra-party). These forms of violence have been particularly targeted towards cisgender women and girls. Secondly, Colombia has a strong civil society that includes a strong and diverse victims’ movement and feminist movement. These movements have played a vital role in bringing attention to the causes, dynamics, and consequences of the armed conflict, and in seeking justice and transforming the complex systems of oppression that enable the conflict to continue. Lastly, Colombia has a robust, ambitious and gender-sensitive transitional justice system. This system is comprised of several overlapping legal and normative frameworks and is implemented through various mechanisms, such as tribunals, truth-seeking bodies, and a domestic reparation programme. It is within the context of the domestic reparation programme that my research began.

In 2011, Colombia produced the legal framework that created the country’s domestic reparation programme, and with it, became the first country to recognise children born of conflict-related sexual violence as direct victims of the armed conflict, entitling them to redress. Their recognition within this law was accompanied by stories about how many of those children were being discriminated against in their communities due to the circumstances of their conception and their biological fathers’ perpetration of violence.  Despite these, after more than ten years of implementation of the programme, children born of conflict-related sexual violence remain largely invisible in the human rights and transitional justice agendas of Colombia. There are no policies in place to address their situation and needs, and there are no organizations or networks dedicated to working with or for them. How do we explain that those children are there, recognised by the law, part of their mothers’ lives and complex members of their communities, and yet, we don’t seem to see them?

One dimension to consider when examining this question has to do with the frameworks through which children born of conflict-related sexual violence have been understood. As mentioned before, Colombia has a very strong feminist movement, which has mostly focused its resources on two fronts. First, as has been the case at the international level, the movement has fought the criminalization of abortion and the transformation of legal frameworks for the recognition of the right to abortion. This work has yielded significant developments, with Colombia decriminalizing abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy in 2022. Second, the movement has also invested its resources in fighting against sexual violence perpetrated in the context of the armed conflict. While these two fronts are critical, they offer a limited perspective on the complex issues related to children born of conflict-related sexual violence. When viewed through the lens of the struggle for safe, free, and legal abortion services, these children may be seen as unwanted lives. When viewed through the lens of the fight against conflict-related sexual violence, they may be seen as evidence of the devastating consequences of sexual violence and women’s continued victimization. However, these views fail to capture the nuanced and complex reality of the lives of children born of conflict-related sexual violence and their mothers’ experiences of reproductive violence.

A reproductive justice framework can broaden our understanding of the experiences of children born of conflict-related sexual violence and their mothers. It can help us see the interconnected issues surrounding those experiences and shed light on how to think and organize strategically about them. No one should endure sexual violence under any circumstances, and if someone becomes pregnant as a result of the abuse, they should have access to safe, free, and legal abortion services, if that’s their preference. If the pregnancy continues, they should be able to do so in a safe context, give birth without any obstetric violence, and, in cases where they decide to keep the child, parent their children in safe and dignified environments. The children should be able to grow up in safe, non-militarized contexts with a loving care network, and as they grow old, they should never have to worry about things like being recruited by armed groups or being forced into joining an armed group or any other war economy in response to threats to their loved ones or because that’s the main way to afford food. For transitional justice mechanisms, of course, this represents several challenges. What would it mean, for instance, to design integral measures of rehabilitation, satisfaction, compensation, and guarantees of non-repetition that account for this?

Author Bio

Dr. Tatiana Sanchez Parra is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellow in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh. Tatiana’s background is in anthropology, human rights and sociology. Working at the intersection of socio legal studies, feminist studies, and Latin American studies, her research focuses on issues of reproductive justice and reproductive violence in contexts of war and political transitions.