Reintegrating FARC's female combatants post-conflict

Publication details

Ebrahimi-Tsamis, Aleisha. (2018) ‘Reintegrating FARC’s Female Combatants: The Challenges of Addressing Gender Binaries in Transitional Justice’, Birkbeck Law Review, 6(1), pp. 79-109, available: http://www.bbklr.org/6-1-5.html

Abstract

The female combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia/Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) face significant and gender-specific obstacles in returning to civilian life now that FARC has formally ended their existence as an armed group. This article argues that the financial incentives, physical protection and sense of equality offered by FARC posed a strong lure to females who were otherwise at a natural disadvantage within Colombian society. Whilst considering female victims of Human Rights violations, deeper consideration is given to the symbiotic and conflicting duality of a female who may fulfil the roles of both victim and abuser, and the inability of present Transitional Justice mechanisms to approach and adequately address such a dyad.

Photo credit: Birkbeck Law Review, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0