In a patriarchal society like Colombia´s, violence and militarism are strongly linked, and rooted in culture and politics. Violence and militarism are connected to the norms of masculinity. The stereotype of men as providers and defenders of the nation and its women has nurtured violence and the use of weapons for longer than 60 years, even since colonial times.

But I am not going to go that far back. I would like to explore how I understand peace, security and justice from a gender lens, and discuss some of the issues that I am concerned with in the juncture of peace processes in my country. Since August 2012 the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia People’s Army (FARC) have been negotiating peace in Habana Cuba, after 18 months of secret negotiations between the president Juan Manuel Santos and the guerilla commanders This year the National Liberation Army (ELN), a smaller left guerrilla group, also began conversations with the government and on June 23^rd the FARC and the government signed the peace agreement. It is the first time in a while that peace seems to be around the corner for Colombians.

I understand peace however, not only to be the absence of war, but also to be economic justice, gender equality and pacific negotiation to conflicts, as well as the prevention of war and security – to be able to live life free from any form of violence.

In fact, according to the United Nations Development Program, a society with economic inequality, exclusion and discrimination, and marginalization, is a society where violence and armed conflict have more probability of occurring. [1] I think this explains why Colombia is such a strongly militarised and violent society.

Colombia is the seventh most unequal country in the world. Despite being a middle-income country, 34.2 percent of people nationwide live in poverty. In the rural areas, the situation is even worse with 42.6 percent of people living in poverty.[2] Colombia is an unequal society and it has been for a long time. Inequality is one of the reasons the current conflict started in 1960, and why the FARC were created.

The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) were born as a Marxist-leninist guerrilla, whose goal was to bring about land reform, redistributing land ownership among the farmers and the working class. The idea was to erase the latifundios and for normal people to be able to have access to more equal opportunities and to the means of production. The civil war that started in 1960 between the state, the FARC and the extreme right wing armed paramilitaries, supported by the terratenientes and the state, has its roots in La Violencia. This was a civil war carried out between 1948 and 1958 when the Liberal party (representing the working class) and the conservative party (representing the caquices) were fighting each other for political power.

My grandfather used to tell me the stories of leaving the family during this period to go hiding because he was an active liberal/communist political leader, and people were looking to kill him because of it. He actually lived a few months in the top of a tree. That was his hiding place.

My grandpa was part of the Communist Party of Colombia. He was a farmer and a political activist. He used to read me the communist manifesto and Karl Marx. He believed in the idea of communism and in what the FARC stood for back in the day. I think many other Colombians like him did as well.

My grandpa was only one of the 2 million people who had to leave their homes as a consequence of this period of conflict. However, the current civil war as to January 2016, has left 6.9 million people internally displaced[3], and this is one of the highest rates of forced internal displacement worldwide.

Political persecution against civil society, political polarisation and strongly marked economic differences among Colombians are the causes of the conflicts that have plagued our society for over eight decades and created the violent and militarised society that Colombia is today.

Colombia also has the tenth highest rate of femicide worldwide.[4]Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have higher rates but Latin America in general makes up for 14 out of the 25 countries with the highest global rates.[5] I refer to femicide here specifically as the number of women who have been shot and stabbed [6], which has been increasing frighteningly. In my country four women are assassinated each day and 90% of those deaths go unpunished.[7]

Throughout the war the three parties, the paramilitares, the FARC and the state, have used sexual violence as a weapon of war and legitimisation of their power. They all have done it in differing ways, but all of them have perpetuated the connection between patriarchy, violence, militarism and gender.

The FARC called themselves the people´s army, so it is within their practical and ideological interests to forbid their troops to use sexual violence as a weapon of war. Yet, they have raped men and women during the conflict as well. They have used women in their troops as sex providers for the men and have controlled their bodies by forcing them to have abortions in the middle of the jungle if they became pregnant.

The paramilitares, use sexual violence to impose social and territorial control over the women and the communities and to enforce their norms of conduct. Women have been shot publically as punishment for the disobedience of the standards of behavior established by the commanders. Moreover, these groups have created and monopolized the business of forced prostitution in the 146 municipalities where they operate.[8]

On the other hand the state has also committed sexual abuse and crimes against women. One of the most prominent cases is that of lieutenant Raul Muños in Floramarillo Cauca, and his troops who raped two teen girls (14 and 13) and killed one of them, along with her two little brothers who were only 9 and 6. His case has been one of the very few taken to court[9]. Generally the army has used sexual harassment and threats against women as means to establish their domain in the communities where they had no prior presence. The sexual violence committed by the Colombian army has a bigger impact among society, and it is important to notice this, as it is the state´s duty to protect its citizens. When it is the state that is harming its citizens, people no longer have an authority to turn to when seeking justice. They are met with impunity and silence.

But this only gets worse; Indigenous and afrodescendant communities are actually disappearing as consequence of crimes based on gender. The Colombian Constitutional Court in 2011 declared that 34 indigenous communities are at risk of physical and cultural extinction.[10]

On the 7^th of April 2011, in the pacific coast of Colombia, Maria Cecilia Bailarín Domicó, from the Embera indigenous group disappeared; she was pregnant at the time. The indigenous guard found her dead. She had been victim of sexual violence. [11]

Patriarchy and violence are also reaffirmed outside the conflict, in normal life, on a day-to- day basis with acts of gender based violence. In Colombia, 75% of attacks with acid are committed against women, and since 2010 there have been more than 100 victims per year [12]. These figures put us on the level of Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and East Africa[13]. According to the Colombian Institute of Forensic Medicine only in 2014 more than 17,996 cases of female raped were registered.[14]

The most known case of acid attack against a woman is the case of Natalia Ponce, a 33 years old entrepreneur who was attacked at the reception of her building by an old neighbor who was obsessed with her. The attack affected 2/3 of Natalia´s body. She did not show her face for 2 years while undergoing more than 20 surgeries and reconstructions. On the 27^th of March of this year the Colombian congress passed a new law called “Natalia Ponce´s law” making acid attacks a crime. Before this, acid attacks were simply judged as a personal injury, leaving 98 per cent of cases in impunity.[15]

This law is a step towards justice and security but it does not change the consequences of patriarchy and violence on women´s bodies and lives. Colombia has underestimated the many different forms of violence that women in particular are frequently victims of, by treating civil security from a logic of war.

This makes me wonder how likely it is for Colombia to attain sustainable peace. What does justice look like in a society where women have been the most affected by generations of patriarchy, militarism and violence?

I believe skepticism around the peace process and the probability of Colombia finally becoming a society without armed conflict is high. People´s opinions are divided, and that is the reflection of a stratified society with polarised political views. However, I also wonder how the state is going to be able to give justice to the victims and build stronger institutions for sustainable peace to take place, because this war, our war, is about inequality, poverty and gender.

But one thing is for sure. Women in my country who have been the most affected by the war both directly and indirectly believe that peace is possible. More than 5000 women marched in Bogota, in December 2015, to express their support for the Colombian peace process.[16]

It has been the women who have been brave enough to start peace-building initiatives within their communities, because they believe peace is possible, but not necessarily a consequence of a peace process. Indigenous and afrodescendant women are speaking up and organising their communities to bring themselves security and justice to their lives.

Even if Colombia is making an effort to move forward, there cannot be sustainable peace without security and peace for women. It is time to change our perception of what security means as a nation and start understanding security not through a logic of war but poverty, inequality and gender issues.

Alejandra Pineda holds a Bachelor degree in International Relations from La Trobe University and has a graduate certificate in Conflict Resolution and Peace Building from Johns Hopkins University. She is keenly interested in the topics of gender issues and peace building, and their intersection. She strongly advocates for women´s empowerment.

References:

[1] UNDG, (2011), World Development Report, http://www.hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/271/hdr_2011_en_complete.pdf

[2] ABColombia, Sisma Mujer & U.S Office on Colombia, (2013) ´Colombia:Mujeres, Violencia Sexual en el Conflicto y el Proceso de Paz, p.6.

[3] UNHCR, (2016), ´La Situación Colombiana´, http://www.acnur.org/donde-trabaja/america/colombia/

[4] Small Arms Survey, (2012), Research Notes, ´Femicide: A Global Problem´, http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/H-Research_Notes/SAS-Research-Note-14.pdf p. 3.

[5] El Espectador (2016), ´Alerta por aumento de feminicidios en America Latina´, http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/elmundo/alerta-aumento-de-feminicidios-america-latina-articulo-626730

[6] The word femicide refers to the killing of females by males because they are female. It also includes girls and infants.

[7] El Ciudadano, (2015), ´Ni una mujer menos: en Colombia hay 4 feminicidios al dia y un 90% de impunidad´, http://www.elciudadano.cl/2016/02/01/252996/ni-una-mujer-menos-en-colombia-hay-4-femicidios-al-dia-y-un-90-de-impunidad/

[8] Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU, (2013), ´Violencia sexual relacionada con los conflictos Informe del Secretario General´, paragraph 9.

[9] Amnistía Internacional, Informe anual 2013, Colombia.

[10] United Nations, Addition to the Report of Independent Expert on Minority Issues, Ms. Gay McDougall, Mission to Colombia, January 25^th, 2011, paragraph 44.

[11] Organización Indigena de Colombia ONIC, (2012), ´Mujeres Indígenas, Victimas Invisibles Del Conflicto Armado En Colombia: La Violencia sexual una estrategia de guerra´, Report presented to UNSG Special Representative Margot Wallström, Colombia, p. 4.

[12] BBC Mundo, (2016), ´Natilia Ponce de León: La mujer que se convirtió en el rostro de los ataques con ácido en Colombia´, http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2016/01/160118_colombia_ley_natalia_ponce_ataques_acido_bm

[13] PBI Colombia, (2016), ´AGAINST WIND AND TIDE´, https://pbicolombia.org/2016/03/14/against-wind-and-tide/

[14] El Tiempo, (no date),´Ellas no callan´, http://www.eltiempo.com/multimedia/especiales/violacion-de-mujeres-que-no-callan-en-colombia/15806496/1

[15] El Espectador, (2015), ´La Indignación de Natalia Ponce por Impunidad en ataques con ácido´, http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/indignacion-de-natalia-ponce-impunidad-ataques-acido-articulo-585266

[16] Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres, (2015), “Mas de 5.000 mujeres recorren el país por la refrendación de la paz”, http://www.rutapacifica.org.co/sala-de-prensa/comunicados/2015/314-mas-de-5000-mujeres-recorren-el-pais-por-la-refrendacion-de-la-paz