Addressing Marginality: Towards Enhanced Participation and People-Centred Security

This cross-stakeholder forum hosted by CONPEACE and Universidad del Rosario examined two closely related concerns in the post-Havana Accords environment: the changing context of opportunities for popular participation and increasing security threats, particularly toward marginalised groups, in the post-Accord era.  Marginality is conceptualised in two distinct manners: as referring to ‘marginalised areas’ at the physical geographical borders of Colombia; and as ‘marginalised groups’ that face exclusion due to their gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality, or socioeconomic status as well as the intersections among these.  Many inhabitants of marginal areas are subjected to non-state orders of governance that prevent people from having a say in security policies or participating politically.  Marginalised groups within state and non-state orders, meanwhile, have continually faced high levels of insecurity and substantial barriers to socio-political inclusion.  The FARC-EP’s demobilisation in 2017 created an opportunity for the Colombian state to alter these dynamics by including citizens in the design and implementation of security policies, an important step in ensuring people-centred security and reducing marginalisation. Given the ongoing murders of social leaders and human rights defenders, as well as the violent targeting of members of the demobilised FARC, it remains to be seen how the window of opportunity presented by the Peace Accords will be able to effect meaningful change.