WOMEN AT THE NEGOTIATING TABLE: A GENDERED VIEW ON THE PEACE-BUILDING PROCESS IN COLOMBIA

The peace-building process in Colombia has been intricate and complex, made of many layers and measures taken to tackle the ongoing challenge. The violence and conflicts experienced by the country have been many, resulting in multiple civil wars, especially as a consequence of the issue of land distribution and the parties’ contradicting political and ideological beliefs. Trail of these problems is the concept of private justice that has formed over the years, subsequently leading to the birth of organizations such as guerrilla and paramilitary groups, which are in great conflict with the Colombian government and to this day have left deep scars in the civil population. For this reason, peace-building has been extremely crucial to the country along with the many actors involved, many of these being women. In particular, this thesis aims at a gendered study of this process, expressing the importance of the role of Colombian women in helping build peace in the country. The research will focus, initially, on the history of the conflict, following with a general analysis of the birth of feminist movements in Colombia, and concluding, with the study of the peace-building process in Colombia through a gendered lens.