“The justice we need is born from our voices”: the struggle of the Gender Strategic Litigation Alliance in Colombia to protect victims and survivors of sexual violence in the armed conflict

The Gender Strategic Litigation Alliance is a coalition of feminist and human rights organizations that, from different parts of Colombia, has woven a legal and human rights strategy to support victims of sexual violence committed within the framework of the armed conflict. Its goal: to make transitional justice a real space for truth, dignity, and reparation.

The Alliance is comprised of the Red Nacional de Mujeres de Colombia, Colectivo de Abogadas Elenita Gonzáles, Colombia Diversa, Corporación Ocho de Marzo, Corporación Humanas, Corporación Caribe Afirmativo, and Colectiva Justicia Mujer. The latter four organizations are also part of Tejiendo Dignidad, an initiative of UN Women in partnership with the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), funded by the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, to implement litigation initiatives, comprehensive support, and security measures for victims of sexual violence and gender-based violence in the context of the armed conflict, promoting their effective participation before the JEP.

The work of these organizations represents a model of legal and political resistance: “Our role is not only legal representation, but also critical oversight of compliance with due diligence standards,” emphasizes Mónica López Cárdenas, coordinator of the Peace and Transitional Justice with Women line at Corporación Colectiva Justicia Mujer. 

Litigation that brings together territories, voices, and memories

Since its formation, the Alliance has shown that litigating together is also a form of collective protection. As Claudia Fernanda Medina, deputy director of Corporación Ocho de Marzo, explains, “working in networks has allowed us to achieve greater advocacy and judicial representation of accredited victims, while ensuring principles of procedural speed and efficiency without sacrificing victims’ rights.” This collaboration has developed a strategy that integrates legal and psychosocial support, articulating local knowledge with technical expertise, and consolidating tools such as case documentation protocols and support networks for women survivors across different regions. 

Risks and challenges: security remains an unfinished commitment 

The right to participate before the JEP cannot depend on victims’ ability to expose themselves. Katrim de la Hoz del Villar, deputy director of Caribe Afirmativo, makes this clear: “Without a clear and preventive strategy, participation is limited, and with it, the possibility of truth, justice, and reparation.”

As noted by the Secretary-General in his latest report on conflict-related sexual violence, victims in Colombia face “(…) many obstacles to reporting and accessing services, particularly the limited presence of the State in rural areas, lack of trust in the judicial system, and fear of reprisals due to insufficient effective protection mechanisms for survivors, their families, and their representatives.”

In this context, promoting security measures to guarantee the participation of women and LGBTIQ+ populations who are victims of sexual violence finds a fundamental normative and political framework in the implementation of the gender provisions of the Peace Agreement, which recognizes their rights, makes their differentiated experiences visible, and establishes specific mechanisms for their protection, comprehensive reparation, and participation in peacebuilding.

Caribe Afirmativo identifies four urgent lines of action: effective anonymization of information, risk assessments with an intersectional approach, institutional prevention measures, and a comprehensive protection strategy that includes real guarantees ranging from psychosocial to physical protection. All of this, they emphasize, must begin with the victims’ own voices. 

International support: backing and accompaniment for victims and survivors of sexual violence 

From the international community, essential networks of technical, financial, and diplomatic support have been built. “The accompaniment of entities such as the European Union, UN Women, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been key not only in terms of resources, but also visibility, territorial monitoring, and political pressure,” explains Katrim de la Hoz del Villar of Caribe Afirmativo.

Colombia has a historic opportunity to serve as a global example through exemplary, reparative, and transformative rulings that place reparation and non-repetition at the center for girls, women, and LGBTIQ+ people who have been victims of this scourge. 

Toward feminist restorative justice 

Today, the opening of Macro Case 11 represents a historic opportunity to transform the approach to transitional justice. The Alliance insists: “Sexual violence cannot continue to be treated as a secondary harm, but as an autonomous, systematic, and structural crime.” The challenge is not to sacrifice the centrality of victims or relativize their experiences.

In his latest report on conflict-related sexual violence, the Secretary-General urges States to “carry out appropriate consultations with women-led organizations to identify pressing gender-based security and protection concerns faced by women and girls in conflict situations, and to strengthen protection measures for women who provide information, for example by adopting specific protocols or guidelines to prevent and respond to reprisals.”

Listening to victims and survivors is not a symbolic act but a national duty, because without security guarantees, there is no real participation. Without participation, there can be no justice.