Transitional justice as education: A feminist network for empowering truth commissions

哥伦比亚澄清真相、共存和不重复委员会的任务是调查世界上持续时间最长的武装冲突之一背后的真相。在筹备阶段，委员会一直注意从世界各地真相委员会吸取的经验教训，目前已有40多个真相委员会。它引入了一些创新做法，将其定位为哥伦比亚更广泛的过渡时期司法进程及其建立持久和平的机会的重要组成部分。真相委员会往往把正规和非正规教育的工作留到工作结束，错失了让更多人参与其工作以及改变思维定势和教育过程的机会。同样，许多技术委员会仅狭隘地将妇女的暴力经历包括在内，或将性别作为一个独立的主题，与技术委员会的其他工作无关。哥伦比亚TC决心不再重蹈覆辙。然而，就像更广泛的哥伦比亚和平进程一样，过渡委员会面临着重大挑战--围绕和平的公众舆论两极分化，这体现在2016年政府与哥伦比亚革命武装力量之间的和平协议全民公投没有取得胜利；该国暴力比率和冲突活跃地区不断上升；以及即将举行的总统选举可能危及和平进程。随着他们开始工作，真相委员会和从事性别和教育学工作的委员会工作人员势必面临着高风险、情绪化和令人精疲力竭的日常挑战，努力收集多达50,000名受冲突影响的哥伦比亚人的证词。该网络旨在支持哥伦比亚委员会的性别和教育学工作，确保委员会能够为在哥伦比亚实现性别公正和包容各方的和平做出重大贡献。利用女权主义方法论、情感代理和变革性教育学中的艺术和人文工具，该网络将把哥伦比亚真相专员及其团队与鼓舞人心的女权主义领导人联系起来，后者领导并从其他地方的TC经验中学习。这些前真相委员会委员是和平活动家、人权倡导者、土著领袖、教育工作者和政要，他们将分享他们作为真相委员会的一部分的经验，从南非到加拿大，从东帝汶到秘鲁，他们将通过一系列研讨会和旅行访问，支持哥伦比亚TC的性别和教育工作并提供战略建议。该项目将通过一系列同行访谈收集这些鼓舞人心的领导人的经验和思考，这也将有助于该项目的支持性关系工作。这些将被用来制作一个互动网站，旨在面向世界各地未来的女权主义和平活动家和领导人，分享这些令人难以置信的个人的生活史、建议和灵感。该网络将在多个层面产生影响，包括：1)组成该网络并为其重要的过渡时期司法工作汲取能量和灵感的个人；2)哥伦比亚真相委员会的成功及其对哥伦比亚和平的贡献；3)国际过渡时期司法委员会和过渡时期司法最佳做法；以及4)围绕过渡时期司法的情感机构和变革教育学分享和开发理论工具。

Colombia's Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition is tasked with investigating the truth behind one of the world's longest running armed conflicts. In its preparatory phase, the Commission has been attentive to lessons learned from truth commissions around the world, of which there have now been more than forty. It introduces a number innovative practices, positioning it as an important part of Colombia's wider transitional justice process and of its chances to build a lasting peace. Too often, truth commissions (TCs) have left engagement with formal and informal education until the end of their work, missing out on opportunities to engage the wider population in their work and to effect change in mind-sets and educational processes. Likewise, many TCs have included women's experiences of violence only narrowly or have approached gender as a discrete theme, unconnected to the rest of the TC's work. The Colombian TC is determined not to repeat these mistakes. However, like the Colombian peace process more generally, the TC faces significant challenges - polarised public opinion around peace, as demonstrated by the no victory in the 2016 referendum on the peace deal between the government and the FARC; rising rates of violence and active conflict regions of the country; and an upcoming Presidential election that may jeopardise the peace process. As they begin their work, Truth Commissioners and TC staff working on gender and pedagogy are bound to confront daily challenges of a high stakes, emotional, and exhausting stakes endeavour to collect the testimonies of up 50,000 Colombians affected by conflict.This network seeks to support the gender and pedagogy work of the Colombian TC, ensuring that the TC is able to make a significant contribution to embedding a gender just and inclusive peace in Colombia. Using tools from the arts and humanities in feminist methodologies, affective agency, and transformative pedagogy, the network will connect Colombian truth commissioners and their teams with inspirational feminist leaders, who have led and learned from TC experiences elsewhere. These former Truth Commissioners are peace activists, human rights advocates, indigenous leaders, educators, and dignitaries - they will share their experiences being part of truth commissions from South Africa to Canada and Timor Leste to Peru, and they will support and offer strategic advice on the gender and pedagogy work of the Colombian TC, through a series of workshops and travel visits.The project will collect the experiences and reflections of these inspirational leaders through a series of peer interviews, that will also feed into the supportive relational work of the project. These will be used to produce an interactive website aimed at future feminist peace activists and leaders around the world, which shares the life histories, advice and inspiration of these incredible individuals. The network will have impact at a number of levels, including for: 1) the individuals who make up the network and draw energy and inspiration from it for their important transitional justice work; 2) the success of the Colombian truth commission and its contribution to peace in Colombia; 3) international TC and transitional justice best practice; and 4) sharing and developing theoretical tools around affective agency and transformative pedagogy in transitional justice.