Colombia’s JEP Sentences: A Conversation about their Meaning and Impact on Peacebuilding

On Sept. 16 and 18, 2025, Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace – referred to as JEP, its acronym in Spanish – issued its first two rulings imposing restorative sanctions on those most responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed over more than five decades of internal armed conflict in the country. The first ruling addressed the crime of kidnapping carried out under the direction of the last secretariat of former FARC-EP (military and political leaders), while the second focused on extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances committed in the Caribbean region by members of the state armed forces.

Join this event to hear presentations from JEP magistrates who reflect on the progress and challenges with issuing sanctions, as well as the sanctions’ impact on the implementation of Colombia’s Final Peace Agreement and peacebuilding in the country, overall. The JEP panel presentations will be followed by discussion and Q&A with the audience, both virtual and in person, with the hope that Colombian contributions and experiences can inform and assist other peace and transitional justice processes around the world.

This event is organized by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, part of the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, the Universidad Externado de Colombia, and The Latin American Institute for Peace & Security.

The panel discussion will be held in Spanish live via Zoom, with English translation. In addition to being on Zoom, the event will be held in person, in Colombia, Salón i604, Carrera 5 este n.º 12B -54, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogotá. Join us on Friday, October 3, 2025, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET.

Speakers:
Humberto Sierra Porto, Director of the Department of Constitutional Law at the Universidad Externado de Colombia, will welcome attendees, with Ángela María Ramírez Rincón, Executive Director of the Barometer Initiative, and Steve Hege, Director of The Latin American Institute for Peace & Security (ILAPS), offering opening remarks. Panelists are: Alejandro Ramelli Arteaga, President, Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP); Ana Manuela Ochoa Arias, Magistrate, First Instance Chamber in Cases of Acknowledgement of Truth and Responsibility; and Camilo Suárez Aldana, Magistrate, First Instance Chamber in Cases of Acknowledgment of Truth and Responsibility. The moderator will be Gloria Castrillón with The Latin American Institute for Peace & Security (ILAPS).

Register here

For more information visit the event website.