Frieden für wen? Sicherheitspolitik im Kontext der Gewalt gegen Menschenrechtsaktivist*innen in Kolumbien

In recent years, especially since the signing of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas in 2016, social leaders, human rights and environmental activists and other critical groups have been facing increasing attacks and hostilities by state and non-state actors in many regions of Colombia. In this context, the Colombian government has implemented a series of security measures and programs to address this increasing violence and provide protection to social leaders at risk. Thus, this paper analyzes the conceptual framework of “protection” and “security” underlying these governmental initiatives as well as the implementation procedures, that have proven to have serious difficulties and failures in providing effective protection to threatened civil society actors. As this article shows, the Colombian security paradigm and protection policies for human rights activists and social leaders do not seem to have an effective long-term, comprehensive and participative approach, increasing even in some cases the risk of those who should protect. In order to discuss these points, this paper will address the following questions: What are the main characteristics and dilemmas of the Colombian state protection policy? How do these protection policies impact on the security of social leaders and civil society actors? What are the main challenges to effectively reduce violence against social leaders in Colombia?