Gender-Based Violence and Climate Change: The Challenges of Environmental Peacebuilding in Colombia

Apr 8, 2024 | Natalia Urzola and María Paula González
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In 2016, after over five decades of internal armed conflict, the Colombian government and the largest guerrilla group in the country, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP), signed a peace agreement. Among the most significant innovations of the peace agreement are its gender and environmental focuses, which act as guiding principles for peacebuilding.

Further, the complexity of the Colombian case heightens because, in addition to the ongoing peacebuilding process with FARC-EP, other illegal armed groups continue to affect the security of the country’s inhabitants, which intensifies the gender-based violence against marginalized communities including women, girls and the LGBTQIA+ population. 

As a result, the current Colombian government placed a significant focus on the so-called “Total Peace”, with the primary objective of achieving peace through negotiation with the remaining illegal armed groups, which includes ELN guerrilla, FARC dissidents, paramilitaries, and criminal bands.