CPTnet
16 September 2006

COLOMBIA: CPT convenes a workshop for women affected by armed conflict

On 10-11 September, CPTers Sandra Rincon, Suzanna Collerd, and Kim Lamberty
organized a workshop for women about the historical memory of women who have
suffered human rights abuses as a result of the Colombian armed conflict.
The group consisted of twenty women, seven of whom were from the Opón
region, an area where CPT Colombia has maintained a permanent accompaniment
since 2001.

In the first part of the workshop, participants considered three questions:
Who are the armed actors? What kind of violence have we suffered? What
have been the effects of the violence on our lives?

The women named the army, paramilitary groups, and the guerrillas as the
armed actors involved in perpetrating human rights abuses. They mentioned a
number of different ways they have suffered from violence, including forced
displacement, threats, sexual assault, verbal abuse, assassination of a
spouse or child, the unwanted presence of armed groups in their houses,
roadblocks and checkpoints. The women noted effects such as psychiatric and
other health problems, lack of confidence in the justice system, poverty,
and the sense of being forgotten by the State. The workshop leaders added
that armed conflict aggravates the discrimination and sexual violence
historically committed against women.

The workshop emphasized the importance of documenting human rights
violations in order to make visible the ways in which armed conflict affects
women specifically, and in order to preserve the historical memory.
Historical memory helps people realize that human rights violations are not
normal. The workshop leaders presented a format for documentation of
historical memory, which included interviews with the victim and with her
community, interviews with other people who are connected to the victim or
community, and interviews with other sources, such as the press.

There is not only one truth, but many, and one must construct a historical
memory that takes into account all versions of the truth, according to the
presenters.

At the end of the two-day workshop, the women wove a web of yarn to
symbolize the creation of a solidarity and support network among the women
participating. CPTers organized this workshop in solidarity with Colombian
women who have suffered human rights abuses, and to begin a CPT project
which will document and preserve the historical memory of the Opón region.