Conflict and Human Rights in Colombia: The Role of the Ombudsman’s Office
---This is a public event--- ---The event will be held in Spanish--- Event to be hosted on Zoom. Please register below, and arrive online 5 minutes before the start of the event.
We kindly invite you to the second edition of the Occasional CONPEACE Webinar Series. As part of this series, researchers of the programme CONPEACE (conpeace.ccw.ox.ac.uk) – From Conflict Actors to Architects of Peace (University of Oxford) and international speakers analyse security challenges in Latin America and beyond. They explore how security architectures need to be adapted to adequately respond to changing security landscapes from a people-centred security perspective.

In our second meeting, we will focus on the role of the Ombudsman’s Office of Colombia (Defensoría del Pueblo). Founded in 1992, the Defensoría oversees the promotion and protection of human rights in Colombia. We are delighted to have the opportunity to discuss with Mr Carlos Alfonso Negret Mosquera, Colombia’s Ombudsman between 2016 and 2020. During his tenure, Mr Negret visited countless regions in Colombia, gaining unique insights on the state of affairs of human rights protection and violations in the post-Peace Agreement period. He will share his extensive experience in a talk that addresses the following questions: What advances have been made in human rights protection and enforcement in Colombia during the transition to peace? What are the remaining challenges that Colombia will have to face in the near future? And how can Colombia succeed on its way towards a post-conflict society? The talk will be followed by a Q&A moderated by CONPEACE director Dr Annette Idler (University of Oxford).

Speaker bios:

Mr Carlos Alfonso Negret Mosquera holds a law degree from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and a certificate in International Human Rights Law from Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio. After a career in the public and private sector, he was elected Ombudsman of Colombia in 2016, a post that he held until August 2020. Mr Negret was the Chairperson of the Global Alliance of Human Rights Institutions, and he is the author of the book “Encuentros en la Colombia Olvidada” (2020).

Dr Annette Idler is the Director of Studies at the Changing Character of War Centre, Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, and at the Department of Politics and International Relations. She is also a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Dr Idler holds a DPhil in Development Studies (Oxford Department of International Development) and is the author of “Borderland Battles: Violence, Crime, and Governance at the Edges of Colombia’s War” (Oxford University Press, 2019). Her research interests lie at the interface of conflict, security and transnational organised crime, especially drug trafficking as well as terrorism, peace building and governance.
Date: 8 October 2020, 16:00 (Thursday, 0th week, Michaelmas 2020)
Venue: Event to be hosted on Zoom.
Speaker: Carlos Alfonso Negret Mosquera
Organisers: Markus Hochmüller (University of Oxford), CONPEACE (University of Oxford ), Annette Idler (Blavatnik School of Government)
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUvceiqqj8jEt1MTsWYR2dLGnuXzQrQLtyQ
Audience: Public
Editor: Hannah Vinten