Talking About Colombia

In May, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon will be in Colombia to work as an advisor to the Organization of American States (OAS) on human rights issues in the country and to monitor the paramilitary demobilization process. Garzon will likely play a key role in the reforms of the Justice and Peace Law (JPL) and the restitution of land to victims of violence under the pending Victims Law. One of the OAS’s main projects is to help the Colombian government on areas of transitional justice.

The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be paying for Judge Garzon’s consulting services.

Since May 2010, Judge Garzon has been suspended from his role as a judge in the Spanish National High Court on charges of abusing his powers to investigate atrocities committed in the Spanish Civil War. Until the suspension, one of his investigations involved the FARC’s support network in Europe.

Garzon, who works as a consultant to the ICC prosecutor despite his suspension, said that if Colombian authorities are unable to start proceedings “the ICC will have to say something—there will be claims and the court will have to say something.”