Social and economic reintegration of former combatants: Challenging human rights and peacebuilding

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Middle- and South America, grade: 1,3, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), course: Human Rights and Conflict, language: English, abstract: On July the 7th 2008, one of the most important opinion publications in Colombia 'SEMANA' published an article called 'El ensayo y error de la reintegración' (Trial and error of the reintegration programme. According to this article, part of the nearly fifty thousand former combatants (left oriented guerrilla groups and right oriented paramilitary groups) considers that the Colombian government has not kept its commitments in the framework or the reintegration program of ex-combatants into civilian life. For instance, the article stresses that some of the demobilized persons do not have access to health and education (particularly vocational training) services and psychological orientation and for this reason the former combatants run the risk of returning to armed conflict (Semana 2008). This situation seems to validate the 'positive peace theory', which suggests that the end of violence via peace agreement does not necessarily mean the achievement of peace. On the contrary, in the aftermath of any intense violence or any so called post-conflict situation, new challenges and opportunities arise, which have to be taken into account if one wants to achieve a real transition toward the ideal of peace.