Is Green Transitional Justice the future for Colombia?

Eleanor Austin - 22 April 2024

Image credit: Leon Hernandez, Flickr

For peace to be viable, nature must be the priority. Yet, the environment is scarcely considered within transitional justice (TJ) processes, despite being at the core of societal conflict and reconciliation. Building off of the Green TJ concept developed by Janine Clark, it is clear that we must rethink the role of non-human entities and prioritise them. Rather than relying on pre-existing understandings of peacebuilding, a paradigm shift needs to occur. Engaging with nature will provide transitional justice with opportunities to promote more inclusive justice processes and long-lasting peace.

The Colombian peace process has illustrated the resounding implications of deprioritising nature. Nature has not been given significant priority in Colombia nor has it been respected. Currently, the nation is seeking to evolve towards a post-conflict arena, yet it faces the consequences of continued extractive processes, forced displacement and a deep disrespect towards nature from various armed actors. Thus, drawing attention to the key question, is Green TJ the future for Colombia? Could this assertion of nature lead to a more inclusive peace process in the nation?

What is Green TJ?

Green TJ has been conceptualised in concurrence with calls to move away TJ away from universalised understandings of peace and towards bottom-up processes. Green TJ signifies a deep shift in this thought through emphasising the role of nature in facilitating enduring peace for communities.

Previously, the dominant theoretical conception of TJ overlooked how violence, nature, and peace are interconnected entities. Nature did not have a role in peacebuilding, despite the destruction of nature being both a cause and consequence of violence. Often, when the implications of environmental degradation are left unresolved, the prospect of peace is obstructed. Despite this, merely adequate proposals for short-term projects have been suggested regarding the natural world in the TJ process. Conversely, Green TJ highlights the need for a focused and prioritised inclusion of non-human entities, by recognising the role of nature in conflict and in enabling peace. It emphasises that nature is crucial to peace.

Green TJ also proposes a more holistic approach to understanding the complex conflict dynamics within a nation, recognising how conflict transforms society and reorders relationships with nature. It seeks to change the dynamics and reassert the relationship between communities and land. Recognising the relationality of nature and people, Green TJ opens a space for multiplicitous solutions and understandings of nature. Thus, it is not only focused on nature but is also a tool for the empowerment for communities and individuals affected by conflict. 

Green TJ is situated within decolonial spheres, as it considers the longstanding legacies of colonial environmental processes. Namely, how land was depleted and appropriated of its nature resources, solely for the monetary gain of the colonial elites. This process enabled a perception of land as a tool for economic extraction, demonising and disrespecting the relationships local communities had with the land. This relationship has continued and transformed since the colonial era and is undeniably worsened through conflicts. Hence, through these practices, land is stripped not only of its natural resources, but also of its metaphysical connections with its host communities. Whereas Green TJ seeks to reconcile these differential relations with nature, thus disrupting the perceived rationality of traditional knowledge systems of TJ as it posits a route towards community-focused, bottom-up peace.

Can Green TJ help Colombia?

In Colombia, of Green TJ may be the solution to a more inclusive peace. Since the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2016, tangible steps have been occurring to progress the nation towards a post-war state. Significantly, in 2022 the Final Report of the Truth Commission was published, presenting the progress of TJ in the nation, and future steps towards peace. Nevertheless, concerns surrounding the extent of peace and justice in the nation have been ubiquitous ever since the Peace Agreement was signed.

Despite the perceived progress towards peace, conflict remains ubiquitous in the nation and is particularly affecting Indigenous and Afro-Descendent communities. These communities have heterogenous but profound relationships with land; they are connected spiritually, agriculturally, historically, and culturally. But often this relationship is overlooked and misconstrued. It is not respected or understood sufficiently within political decision-making. During the Colombian conflict, the dynamics of these relationships were shifted, disconnected, and destroyed, through continuous extractive practices, such as illegal gold mining, forced displacements and artillery use.

Destabilisation is currently pervasive in the region of Chocó, which is home to the largest Indigenous and Afro-Descendent communities in the nation. Chocó has been subject to a significant expansion in extractive environmental practices, with 43% of all illegal gold mining occurring in the region. The strategy of confinement has also increased, whereby Indigenous people become trapped and surrounded by violence. They are at constant risk of violence but cannot leave. They are in a liminal space, with their freedoms and livelihoods constrained. In 2023, 64,000 Indigenous people were confined, 15,587 of whom were situated in Chocó. The conflict disproportionately affects these communities and solutions for justice remain limited.

Nevertheless, throughout the Colombian peace process, the presence of nature was notable. Victimhood was assigned to nature through the rights of nature court rulings, which stemmed from the activism of ethnic minority communities. In these rulings, nature was respected, it became a subject of rights and eligible for reparations. This could have been a key turning point in the pursuit of a bottom-up and greener TJ. However, since these rulings, it became clear that nature and the heterogeneous relationships communities had with land are not understood nor prioritised. It has become a solution only on paper and it was not transformed into tangible policy. This has meant that extractive practices have not been disciplined or prevented but facilitated through this cursory attempt at justice. The lack of respect for nature within elite circuits and armed groups was highlighted in 2022, when 60 Colombian environmentalists were killed for their activism. Thus, making Colombia the deadliest country to pursue environmental justice in, and subsequently placing Green TJ in a precarious position.

Additionally, Green TJ faces challenges with respecting each communities’ unique perspectives, and relationships with nature. The way in which Indigenous and Afro-Descendent individuals not only understand nature, but interact with nature, are varied and complex. This has led to questions surrounding the practicality of Green TJ and whether the theoretical construction is feasible in reality. However, Green TJ theorists recognise that there is not a standardised approach to implementing this type of justice, rather a diverse process facilitated by the communities that are impacted. Learning from, rather than speaking at, Indigenous and Afro-Descendant communities will enable the field to understand better how to pursue this type of justice. Not only acknowledging their perceptions of justice, but deeply respecting their relationships with nature is the solution.

Thus, despite the challenges to Green TJ, it is still important to consider, as it disputes the common-sensical, top-down, standardised notions of justice. It is a route to a better form of justice and empowerment for many overlooked and disproportionately targeted groups.