The Colombian Standard: Een interdisciplinair onderzoek naar succesvolle reïntegratie van ex-FARC-strijders

Abstract

After more than five decades of conflict in Colombia, in december 2016 a peace agreement was signed by the Colombian government and the ‘Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia–Ejército del Pueblo’ — a leftist rebel group usually referred to as the FARC. Consequently, between 9.000 and 15.000 FARC combatants have to be demobilized, disarmed and reintegrated into civil life. Therefore, the following interdisciplinary research question was formed: “What are the requirements for successful reintegration of ex-FARC combatants after signing a peace agreement with the Colombian government?”. To answer this question, three independent sub-questions are addressed in the disciplinary chapters, written from the disciplines Conflict Studies (by Caspar Schoevaars), Social Geography (by Sander de Bruin), and Cognitive Neurobiological Psychology (by Hanne Oberman). The acquired disciplinary insights are integrated into a ‘common ground’, using the integration techniques of redefinition (of the concept ‘successful reintegration’), and extension (of the ‘maximalist standard’ for reintegration processes; ‘the Colombian standard’). Eventually, successful reintegration of the ex-FARC combatants can be attained by implementing the newly formed ‘Colombian standard’, with the requirements given by the redefinition of ‘successful reintegration’ — “a legitimate process in which target-group-specific help is guaranteed for all victims of the armed conflict (ex-combatants included), to ultimately diminish the root causes of mobilisation, and prevent recidivism”.