Colombia’s Former Enemies Join Search for Disappeared as UN Praises Victim Justice

The UN Human Rights Office supported the system’s creation and work, provided technical assistance and helped keep victims’ rights at the centre of the tribunal’s work.

Former FARC-EP leaders and Colombian army officers are working together to find people who disappeared during the country's armed conflict, undertaking a shared task that could help families recover their relatives' remains and learn what happened to them. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk welcomed the effort as a major step for victims, describing Colombia's restorative justice measures as a global achievement. Those taking part have acknowledged responsibility for gross human rights violations and abuses, as well as serious violations of international humanitarian law, making their participation part of a process that connects accountability with repairing the harm they caused.

A cemetery search brings former adversaries together

At the San Antonio de Padua cemetery in Pitalito, Huila, former leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC-EP, and army officers are helping locate and identify the disappeared so their remains can be returned to their families. Their work forms part of restorative orders imposed by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, the transitional justice tribunal created under Colombia's 2016 Peace Agreement. For families seeking answers about a missing relative, the search carries a deeply personal purpose: establishing their loved one's fate and making a return to the family possible. Türk described the cooperation between former enemies as a powerful contribution to truth, reparation and healing for people affected by the conflict.

Acknowledging responsibility means helping repair the harm

Colombia's transitional justice framework allows people accused of serious crimes and violations who acknowledge responsibility to face restorative orders instead of custodial sentences in prison, with the Pitalito search representing one such reparation measure. This approach places obligations on those responsible to contribute to addressing the consequences of their actions, giving victims' needs a direct role in the justice process. Marking ten years since the signing of the Peace Agreement, Türk said the measures now underway were advancing victims' rights and opening a path towards truth, justice, reparations and sustainable peace and security. The cemetery project gives those commitments a concrete form through work intended to reunite families with the remains of people lost during the conflict.

Families need a lasting commitment to the search for justice

Türk called for sufficient funding for the Comprehensive System for Peace, which includes the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the Unit for the Search of Persons Deemed Disappeared, so these bodies can fully carry out their work. He stressed that the current effort must extend beyond a single initiative, describing the judicial and non-judicial mechanisms established under the Peace Agreement as essential to protecting victims' rights and responding to their demands. The UN Human Rights Office supported the system's creation and work, provided technical assistance and helped keep victims' rights at the centre of the tribunal's work. Continued implementation, Türk said, is vital to preserving that investment and delivering the answers, recognition and reparations families are seeking.