Democratising land control: towards rights, reform and restitution in post-conflict Colombia

ABSTRACT

Colombia’s contentious agrarian dynamics have been at the centre of both the armed conflict and peace process. This article reveals the discrepancies between land-tenure legislation and actual outcomes. While the peace agreements offer new opportunities for democratic land control, new institutions may end up reinforcing existing power relations. This article argues that linking land rights with human rights can be a powerful strategy for rural social justice and accountability. As the struggle for democratic land control moves from armed conflict to the political arena, mobilising from below will be a decisive factor as to whether rights, reform and restitution become a reality in post-conflict Colombia.

RÉSUMÉ

Les dynamiques agraires conflictuelles de la Colombie ont été au centre du conflit armé tout comme du processus de paix. Cet article révèle l’écart entre la législation foncière et les résultats réels. Alors que les accords de paix ouvrent de nouvelles opportunités pour le contrôle démocratique de la terre, les nouvelles institutions peuvent éventuellement renforcer les relations de pouvoir existantes. Cet article soutient que l’articulation entre droits fonciers et droits de la personne peut être une stratégie forte pour la justice sociale et la responsabilisation en milieu rural. Comme la lutte pour le contrôle démocratique de la terre passe du conflit armé à l’arène politique, la mobilisation de la base sera un facteur décisif pour la réalisation des droits, des réformes et de la restitution dans un contexte de post-conflit en Colombie.

KEYWORDS:

• Democratic land control
• human rights
• land rights
• accountability mechanisms
• Colombia

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Bladimir Rodríguez Muñoz and Darío Fajardo for their research assistance and comments on an earlier version of this paper. A special thanks to Jun Borras, Zoe Brent, Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, Salena Tramel, Diana Ojeda and Jacobo Grajales, who also provided comments and valuable insights on earlier versions. I would also like to thank Gemma van der Haar, Gerard Verschoor, Julián Cortés and those who participated in the Diálogo de Saberes organised by Wageningen University and Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Icononzo and Viotá, where many insights for this paper were gained. Two anonymous reviewers and the editors of CJDS also provided very useful comments and criticisms, which greatly enhanced this final version. All remaining errors are, of course, my own.

ORCID

Ben M. McKay http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5737-5255

Notes

1 Translated by author from OACP (2016, 13).

2 Translated by author from OACP (2016, 10).

3 See, for example, Ballvé (2012, 2013) and Grajales (2011, 2013, 2015).

4 Resguardos are land reservations for indigenous peoples that are collective, inalienable, imprescriptible and not subject to seizure (Art. 63; Art. 329).

5 The Gini coefficient is a statistical measurement between 0 and 1, whereby 0 = perfect equality and 1 = perfect inequality.

6 “Micro-focalised” zones are those specific municipalities, villages or even individual parcels eligible for land restitution.

7 Among others fighting for rural social justice.

8 Although they first established the alliance in 2013.

9 These political tendencies draw from Borras, Franco, and Wang (2013).

10 Fox (2007a, 140) defines “enabling environments” as “the institutional context that either facilitates or blocks the collective action that is critical to providing leverage and voice to underrepresented people”.

11 The JEP will judge members of the FARC, military and civil society accused of crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.

12 Paraphrased and translated by author based on a speech given at the symposium “Reforma rural integral: Retos para la contrucción de paz” at the Universidad Nacional, Bogotá, 13–14 February 2017.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ben M. McKay

Ben M. McKay is an Assistant Professor of Development and Sustainability at the University of Calgary in Canada. He received his PhD from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, Netherlands, and is a research associate and part of the global secretariat of the BRICS Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies (BICAS). His current research focuses on the limits, possibilities and contradictions of food sovereignty and neo-extractivism. His work has been published in the Journal of Peasant Studies, World Development, Journal of Agrarian Change, Energy Policy and Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal, among others.