Restorative Justice Symposium in Cali, Colombia

The symposium, Justicia Restaurative y Paz en Colombia ^[1] addressed restorative justice at two levels: in dealing with localized conflict and in dealing with national conflict. Colombia has experienced civil war and insurgency for more than 50 years, so there was great interest in hearing the delegation of South Africans, led by Archbishop Desmund Tutu, share their perspectives. 

Two formal events launched the symposium on the 9^th. One was an ecumenical prayer service conducted in front of the first Roman Catholic Mission in Cali, a site that overlooks the entire city. This was followed by a visit to a photographic exhibit, Contra el Olvido (Against Oblivion), which featured extraordinary pictures depicting the war and its fallout. There were haunting photographs, such as one of a soldier with a gun across his lap and a baby in his arms. In another, two police officers stood behind a college student with their weapons resting on his shoulders. They were, the caption explained, using him as a human shield. The exhibit provided a sober and important prelude to the symposium. 

The symposium itself began on the 10^th and concluded before lunch on the 12^th. Each day the morning was devoted to plenary sessions and the afternoons to six concurrent seminars. The plenary sessions focused exclusively on restorative justice and the national peace process, while most of the seminars addressed how restorative justice is used in dealing with crime, business conflict, etc. ^[2]

Part of the reason for the great interest in the symposium was the imminent special session of Congress that President Uribe had called for later in February. This special session was to debate a number of proposed bills to govern peace negotiations between the government and guerrilla and paramilitary groups. 

Archbishop Tutu spoke for the first time the morning of the 10th. ^[3]He is a captivating speaker with an evident spiritual authority. He elicits in people the desire to be the people they can be; to put aside differences and to focus on the common good. At the conclusion of his talk, the Vice President of the nation, Francisco Santos, put aside notes and said he would speak from the heart as a victim of the conflict, not as a representative of the government. In that capacity, he said that the violence must stop and that he would be willing to meet with the FARC guerrillas who harmed his family if that is what it took to bring peace. 

Justice Albie Sachs, of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, also spoke that morning. He is white, was a member of the ANC, and was badly injured in an attempted assassination carried out by South African security forces who had placed the bomb in his car. 

He spoke about the physical design of the Constitutional Court. The government chose to place it inside Fourth Prison in Johannesburg, a notorious prison that held both Ghandi and Mandela (at different times). Its location was chosen in order to remind the people who work there as well as others who enter the court that the human rights of individuals must always be protected.  

He described other features included in the design of the court building. The government inserted a ribbon of glass windows around the courtroom so that those inside could see sunshine and those outside would know that nothing happens secretly, out of mind’s eye.  

Artwork in the building draws from testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Sachs said that there was a deliberate choice not to focus on the degradation and horror of the apartheid years, but rather on the strength of the human spirit that emerged under those conditions. 

The plenary sessions Friday morning included three more presentations by South African speakers. The initial address was by Justice Sachs, who spoke about meeting the man who had planted the bomb that maimed him, and of how this man found release from guilt after testifying before the TRC and committing himself to community service projects as a way of making amends. He also described the difficult issues faced by the ANC leadership as they participated in the development of the TRC. The message was that moving from resistance to national leadership forced them to address new questions and learn new lessons, even as they held to principles that had guided them for many years.  

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a clinical psychologist, spoke of the trauma of victims of government-sanctioned human rights abuses, and of the powerful and important role of forgiveness in helping them move forward. The South African speakers spoke of suffering and forgiveness as something that can ennoble the victim, an interesting, provocative and powerful perspective as Pumla presented it. 

Tokyo Sexwale, now the former governor of the Guateng Province in South Africa, spoke of his life as a freedom fighter with the ANC, and of the political decisions that he and other ANC leaders confronted when they and Mandela considered how to proceed with negotiations with President F.W. DeKlerk. While Tutu and Pumla focused on forgiveness and love in their talks, Sexwale emphasized the need for leaders to think pragmatically. The ANC came to realize that they had defeated their enemy in every way but militarily, and that it was only a matter of time before they won that war as well.  Their enemy was frightened and consequently ready to embark on reckless courses of action that would likely not only destroy itself but also the rest of South Africa. Mandela helped the ANC leadership understand that their task had now become to find a way for the government to step down without taking drastic action. As a result they learned to compromise in order to achieve their ultimate goal, but only in ways that were consistent with their principles. He described the process as long and difficult, and admitted that some of the decisions were less than perfect. That, he said, is one of the responsibilities of leaders.

The plenary session on Saturday consisted primarily of a roundtable of six panellists addressing comments to President Uribe with him responding by satellite. He had intended to attend the symposium, but an illness prevented him from flying. This made the roundtable almost a “private” conversation among the seven people, played out in front of a packed audience. 

It is not possible to summarize briefly all that happened. Fortunately, it was all recorded on video and audio equipment. Essentially the roundtable turned into peace negotiations carried out in front of a live audience and a national television audience. The South African delegation (Archbishop Tutu, Mr. Sexwale, and Mr. Penuell Maduna, ex-Minister of Justice) at one point asked whether President Uribe would allow the leaders of guerrilla forces come to South Africa to meet with them. President Uribe considered for a moment, and then said that he would offer one condition: that the guerrilla leaders declare a cease-fire while they were in South Africa.  

Archbishop Tutu responded by standing and issuing a call to the guerrilla leaders to come down from the mountains and meet with them in South Africa, and further to declare a cease fire during the time they visited South Africa. 

The Colombian participants at the symposium were excited and hopeful about what had happened. President Uribe said that he was 52 years old, and that never in his lifetime had there been peace. It is amazing as an outsider to watch people, worn out by conflict, begin to believe that something might happen. It was as though we were standing on holy ground. 

Restorative justice requires courage on the part of the participants and of the facilitators. While some restorative encounters are more successful than others, when participants allow themselves to trust the process, remarkable breakthroughs can take place. 

It is unclear how this will end up. There are reports that Saturday afternoon a representative of ELN (the smaller guerrilla group) called to accept Archbishop Tutu’s offer. As of that night there had been no response from the larger guerrilla group, FARC. There are a number of entanglements and complications that may make it difficult for FARC to accept the South African’s invitation. But, as one of the South African delegates said afterwards: “All we can do is try.” 

[ 1] The symposium was sponsored by Fundación Alvaralice, Corporacion Excelencia en la Justicia, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Cali) and Paz y Bien Fundación.

Daniel W. Van Ness
March 2005