On June 23, 2016, after 50 years of fighting, the government of Colombia and the FARC-EP agreed to bring the region’s longest-lasting war to an end. This latest accord, which focused on demobilization and disarmament, is part of a larger peace process, comprised of a range of issues, from land-use to political participation to accountability and justice.
Although much of the peace process has been hammered out around the negotiating table, courts, both domestic and international, have played a hand in determining the scope and nature of peace. Indeed, the politics of peace in Colombia are heavily judicialized, meaning that courts and the language of the law have become key tools for managing political contention. Unlike any peace process before it, the Colombian peace process falls under the jurisdiction of not one but two international courts: the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR).
