Paula Gaviria | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nationality | Colombia |
| Education | University of the Andes |
| Occupation | lawyer |
| Employer | Constitutional Court of Colombia et al |
| Known for | United Nations Special Rapporteur |
| Predecessor | Cecilia Jimenez-Damary |
Paula Gaviria Betancur is a Colombian lawyer who was appointed to be a Presidential advisor and a United Nations Special Rapporteur. In each case her expertise was in displaced people.
Gaviria was born in the country's capital of Bogotá on 15 May 1972. Her grandfather, Belisario Betancur, was a President of Colombia in the 1980s. [1] She graduated in law at the University of los Andes and then took post graduate qualifications in Journalism and Political Marketing. Her early career was spent at Colombia's Constitutional Court. [2]
In 2011 the Colombian government put into place what was called the Victim's Law after decades of conflict with the rebel organization FARC and drug cartels. The law required that the millions of victims of conflict (including four millions who had been displaced) should be compensated. [3] Gaviria became responsible for this law and the Victim's Unit (Unidad para las Víctimas). [4] She oversaw the creation of the Victims Registry.
In 2016 Gaviria became the Colombian President's advisor on human-rights. [5] [6] She assisted the government in establishing a peace agreement with Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP). She argued that the agreement needed to take accounts of the views of the victims. Her work was recognised by the World Bank when she received the José Edgardo Campos Collaborative Leadership award in 2016. [7] She ceased to be the President's advisor in 2018 she led Nobel Laureate Juan Manuel Santos's Compaz Foundation. [8] [4]
In 2022, she was appointed Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, [4] succeeding Cecilia Jimenez-Damary from the Philippines who served from 2016. Gaviria took office on 1 November 2022. She stated that she would work for sustainable solutions and in particular the use of the private sector to break cycles of displacement.[ citation needed ]
Gaviria has describes climate change, generalized violence, wars and migration processes as the most important causes of internal displacement. She stresses that the participation of those affected is essential for the development of solutions. A key task of those responsible for politics is prevention . [9]
The history of Colombia includes its settlement by indigenous peoples and the establishment of agrarian societies, notably the Muisca Confederation, Quimbaya Civilization, and Tairona Chiefdoms. The Spanish arrived in 1499 and initiated a period of annexation and colonization, ultimately creating the Viceroyalty of New Granada, with its capital at Bogotá. Independence from Spain was won in 1819, but by 1830 the resulting "Gran Colombia" Federation was dissolved. What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada. The new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation (1858) and then the United States of Colombia (1863) before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886. A period of constant political violence ensued, and Panama seceded in 1903. Since the 1960s, the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict which escalated in the 1990s but decreased from 2005 onward. The legacy of Colombia's history has resulted in a rich cultural heritage, and Colombia's geographic and climatic variations have contributed to the development of strong regional identities.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict starting in 1964. The FARC-EP was officially founded in 1966 from peasant self-defense groups formed from 1948 during the "Violencia" as a peasant force promoting a political line of agrarianism and anti-imperialism. They are known to employ a variety of military tactics, in addition to more unconventional methods, including terrorism.
Álvaro Uribe Vélez is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010.
An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee.
Special rapporteur is the title given to independent human rights experts whose expertise is called upon by the United Nations (UN) to report or advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective.
The Patriotic Union or UP is a leftist, Colombian political party, founded by the FARC and the Colombian Communist Party in 1985, as part of the peace negotiations that the guerrillas held with the Conservative Belisario Betancur administration.
The Colombian conflict began on May 27, 1964, and is a low-intensity asymmetric war between the government of Colombia, far-right paramilitary groups and crime syndicates, and far-left guerrilla groups, fighting each other to increase their influence in Colombian territory. Some of the most important international contributors to the Colombian conflict include multinational corporations, the United States, Cuba, and the drug trafficking industry.
Piedad Esneda Córdoba Ruiz was a Colombian lawyer and politician who served as a senator from 1994 to 2010. A Liberal Party politician, she also served as a member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia for Antioquia from 1992 to 1994.
Walter Kälin is a Swiss humanitarian, constitutional lawyer, international human rights lawyer, activist, and advocate. He is also known as a legal scholar and a renowned professor. He has been a leader in changing Swiss laws and international laws for humanitarian purposes and he has been published extensively on issues of human rights law, the law of internally displaced persons, refugee law, and Swiss constitutional law.
Colombia has been in the throes of civil unrest for over half a century. Between 1964 and now, 3 million persons have been displaced and about 220,000 have died, 4 out of 5 deaths were non-combatant civilians. Between left and right-winged armed forces, paramilitary and/or guerrilla, and an often corrupt government, it has been difficult for Colombia to set up any kind of truth or reconciliation commission. That is why the first on the scene, so to speak, were representatives of the UN. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has been present in Colombia since 1997. Since 2006 though, there has been another international movement turning its attention to Colombia; namely the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). The works of both of these institutions have led to a few semi-official national committees to oversee truth seeking missions in the hopes of eventually achieving reparation. In 2012, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) began their fourth attempt to negotiate an end to the fighting. Peace talks between the Colombian government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC, the main guerrilla force in the country, are currently underway in Havana, Cuba. The main issues are land redistribution, integration of the FARC into the political arena and an end to the powerful cocaine cartels. Though past attempts at peace talks have failed, negotiators in Havana, Cuba have gotten significantly further than ever before. Experts agree that it is not unreasonable to expect an accord by the end of 2014. In the words of President Santos: "Only in a Colombia without fear and with truth can we begin to turn the page."
The Colombian peace process is the peace process between the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC–EP) to bring an end to the Colombian conflict, which eventually led to the Peace Agreements between the Colombian Government of Juan Manuel Santos and FARC-EP. Negotiations began in September 2012, and mainly took place in Havana, Cuba. Negotiators announced a final agreement to end the conflict and build a lasting peace on August 24, 2016. However, a referendum to ratify the deal on October 2, 2016 was unsuccessful after 50.2% of voters voted against the agreement with 49.8% voting in favor. Afterward, the Colombian government and the FARC signed a revised peace deal on November 24 and sent it to Congress for ratification instead of conducting a second referendum. Both houses of Congress ratified the revised peace agreement on November 29–30, 2016, thus marking an end to the conflict.
The Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC) is an office of the United Nations Secretariat tasked with serving the United Nations' spokesperson and political advocate on conflict-related sexual violence, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC). The Special Representative holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the UN and chairs the UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict. The mandate of the SRSG-SVC was established by Security Council Resolution 1888, introduced by Hillary Clinton, and the first Special Representative, Margot Wallström, took office in 2010. The current Special Representative is Pramila Patten of Mauritius, who was appointed by UN Secretary General António Guterres in 2017. The work of the SRSG-SVC is supported by the UN Team of Experts on the Rule of Law/Sexual Violence in Conflict, co-led by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPO), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), also established under Security Council Resolution 1888.
Mary Lawlor is Adjunct Professor of Business and Human Rights in the School of Business of Trinity College Dublin. An Irish national, she is currently the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, appointed for a three-year term from May 2020. She is the founder and former Executive Director of Front Line Defenders and former director of the Irish branch of Amnesty International.
Tlaleng Mofokeng is a South African physician who is the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. She campaigns for universal health access and HIV care. She was named one of the BBC's 100 Women in 2021.
Álvaro Leyva Durán is a Colombian lawyer, economist, politician, human rights defender and diplomat. He has been the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Colombia in the government of Gustavo Petro since 7 August 2022. On 7 February 2024, he was suspended from his ministerial position for three months over an investigation into potential violations of procurement laws.
Francesca P. Albanese is an Italian international lawyer and academic. On 1 May 2022, she was appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories for a three-year term. She is the first woman to hold the position.
Margaret Lockwood Satterthwaite is the American-born special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers for the United Nations. She has been involved in legal cases including those in Kiribati and the United Kingdom where the government was planning to overrule the judiciary.
Astrid Jovanna Puentes Riaño is a Colombian-born Mexican law professor. She has led the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) to support the people who live in La Oroya, "one of the most polluted places on Earth". In 2024 she became the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to a healthy environment.
Claudia M. Flores is a Serbian-born American law Professor at Yale University. She is a member of the United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.
Dorothy Estrada-Tanck is a Mexican academic who has worked in Spain. She has led the United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women and girls. She co-authored a report about the "gender apartheid" in Afghanistan which they considered a crime against humanity.
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United Nations special rapporteurs bear mandates from the United Nations Human Rights Council and may hold the titles special rapporteur, independent expert or special representative of the Secretary-General, and are also referred to simply as mandate-holders. | ||
