JUSTICE IN THE TIME OF PEACE: EVALUATING THE INVOLVEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL COURTS IN COLOMBIA

When the Final Peace Agreement was signed by the Colombian National Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia--People's Army (FARC-EP) in 2016, it marked the end of over fifty years of war. The agreement itself attempted to strike a careful balance between seeking a peaceful end to armed conflict and ensuring justice and accountability for atrocity crimes. Indeed, scholars, diplomats, and actors in the human rights space have long debated these two objectives--whether one should be prioritized over the other and how to sequence them if both are pursued. Courts are particularly relevant in this process, and the Colombian peace agreement creates a complex judicial system to deal with issues of justice and accountability.