Ana Isabel Rodríguez, pretenured lecturer at the Faculty of Communication Sciences, has contributed with a chapter in the book Balances y perspectivas del cumplimiento del Acuerdo de Paz en Colombia (2016-2022) [Balances and Perspectives of Compliance with the Peace Agreement in Colombia (2016-2022)], published by the University of the Basque Country.
In 2016, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) guerrillas ended a conflict of more than fifty years with the signing of a final peace agreement. After six years, this publication explores the reality of compliance with the points and measures set out in the agreement from different academic perspectives.
Together with twenty-one other authors, Ana Isabel Rodríguez shows her research in the chapter “Una mirada a la implementación del Capítulo Étnico: diálogos y debates inter-epistemológicos alrededor de la paz y las identidades étnicas de Colombia [A look at the implementation of the ethnic chapter: dialogues and inter-epistemological debates on peace and ethnic identities of Colombia"]. The doctor developed the main idea of this text in her doctoral thesis about the emergence and implementation of the Ethnic Chapter.
In her chapter, she presents an analysis of the implementation of the ethnic chapter from the signing of the agreement in 2016 to the change of Government in 2018. Specifically, three elements are studied: the degree of prior consultation with ethnic groups regarding peace legislation derived from the agreement; the creation and operation of a high-level panel with ethnic groups responsible for monitoring implementation; and the integration of the ethnic dimension into the metrics of the agreement’s implementation framework.
The chapter argues that the same structural impediments that ethnic communities had to face to include the ethnic chapter in the final peace agreement are also an obstacle to an implementation that respects the ethnic precepts contained therein. The author explains that there has been a process of co-optation within the hegemonic model of the State but not a true inclusion and horizontal cooperation with ethnic authorities.
“In these circumstances, the ethnic collective action that was mobilised during the peace dialogue has not declined but has been reinforced during implementation due to the lack of unwillingness by previous governments to participate in peace policies from their capacity as ethnic authorities,” Ana Isabel Rodríguez pointed out.
