The relevance of positive peace to facing social challenges

the post-peace agreement and the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia

Abstract

The Colombian government and the guerrilla group of the FARC—EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army), after more than half a century of conflict in the country, reached a peace agreement in 2016. The Havana Peace Agreement, from a perspective of positive peace, brings more than a possible end to violence in Colombia: it addresses the deep-seated challenges to social protection left over from the conflict, as well as a re-founding of the Colombian state. There is still a theoretical and empirical gap, however, about why and how can transitional justice mechanisms collaborate with the promotion of social protection measures and address their challenges in peacebuilding environments? In this article we argue that the transitional justice promoted by the Agreement is a fundamental tool to face the challenges to social protection in Colombia —be they historical or originating from the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose a new angle to the traditional perspectives of peacebuilding, transitional justice, and social protection studies, showing that there are analytical gains in adopting an interdisciplinary perspective as a middle ground between the minimalist and maximalist aspects of peacebuilding studies, and that incorporates transitional justice mechanisms and social challenges under a long-term development plan.