With the report of important achievements, the Unit for the Victims rendered an account of its management in 2020

One of the most important results from 2020 was the enactment of Law 2078 of January 8^th, 2021, which extended the Victims and Land Restitution Law for another 10 years.

This was highlighted during the 2020 Public Accountability Hearing in Putumayo, where the Unit’s General Director, Ramon Rodriguez, and his work team announced the results of the work carried out in one complex year, especially due to the impact of covid-19.

Rodriguez pointed out that the Single Victims Registry (RUV in its Spanish acronym), one of the most robust tools of its kind, has allowed victims to gain access to aid, assistance, and integral reparation measures. "The registry allows victim population identification, which helps focusing Victims Public Policy to the real recipients," he said. During 2020, a total of 50,448 applications were received and, to date, a total of 9,165,126 victims are included in the RUV.

Main humanitarian actor

Being the country’s main humanitarian actor, the Unit for the Victims effectively coordinated Humanitarian Assistance. An example of this was the delivery of 670,146 money transfers to 469,531 forced displacement victims’ households for a value of $401,292,672,290 COP. Likewise, Humanitarian Aid was delivered in cash for events other than displacement to 4,235 households for $5,314,930,990 COP, and in it also delivered in kind goods to 8,584 households worth $6,344,815,762 COP.

Integral reparation

Administrative compensation is one of the integral reparation measures. In that sense, Rodriguez assured the entity advanced with an execution of 100% of assigned resources for the 2020 period: "We granted a total value of $937,861 million COP, corresponding to 116,125 transfers made throughout the national territory." He added that the prioritization route was applied to reach those who most need it, that is why "the age was adjusted from 74 to 68 years to move forward with the goals."

The Unit for the Victims has identified 27,000 victims living abroad, which are found in at least 43 countries. By 2020, 2,532 victims abroad had been compensated.

Regarding collective reparation, Ramon Rodriguez said: "One of the main challenges has been the implementation of a model that allows characterizing the damages to the communities and devising actions that allow overcoming them."

To date, there are 792 Collective Reparation Subjects included in the RUV. In 2020, 100% compliance was achieved with the reparative actions of the Integral Collective Reparation Plans (PIRC in its Spanish acronym) of 12 subjects. Additionally, goods for collective use were delivered, and agricultural projects and social and community infrastructure were supported with 42 Collective Reparation Subjects, this was done with an investment of $7,307 million COP. "It is important stress that collective reparation is one of the main implementation actions of the Peace Agreement and the PDET initiatives," Rodríguez added.

During the public hearing, the importance of emotional recovery was also mentioned. According to the data provided, at the end of 2020, 256,120 victims had received psychosocial aid within the framework of access to the reparation measure.

Participation

In 2020, the Unit deployed a series of actions to gather proposals from the Victims Effective Participation Board. It created constant workspaces where progress was socialized and there were dialogues that allowed the participation strengthening.

Thus, the Great Dialogue with Victims in Times of COVID-19 was developed, where 32 Departmental Boards and the one form Bogota were involved. As a result of the dialogues, the entity assumed 328 commitments that were fully met. On the other hand, the Participaz con Legalidad strategy was launched. Today there are about 1,101 Effective Participation Boards where victims enact their right to participate, and where they also lead spaces for inclusion to advocate for their rights fulfillment.

Returns and relocations

Regarding the forced displacement victims return and relocation, 1,426 money orders were placed to support the transportation and belongings transfers for an approximate value of $1,878,001,290 COP to households that requested return support. Likewise, to help sustainability, 9,560 transfers were delivered for a value of $ 4,852,932,000 COP.

Por otra parte, la articulación entre el nivel nacional y territorial, las administraciones municipales y los cooperantes permitió la entrega de 2.397 Esquemas Especiales de Acompañamiento Familiar con una inversión aproximada de $13.681.385.884 para unidades de negocio de generación de ingresos de los hogares y 344 de acompañamiento comunitario.

On the other hand, the articulation between the national and territorial level, the municipal administrations, and the cooperators, included the delivery of 2,397 Special Family Support Schemes with an approximate investment of $13,681,385,884 COP for business units for household income generation, as well as 344 Schemes for community support.

One of the actions contained in the National Development Plan of President Ivan Duque is the families return. That is why, in 2020, it was achieved that 41,589 victims settled back in their territories, relocated, or integrated locally.

Ethnic issues

The advances in the 2020 period also respond to the rights vindication and the attention focused on ethnic groups, indigenous people, and communities, the romm or gypsy people, the black, Afro-Colombian, raizal and palenqueras communities around the territory, cultural identity and autonomy and self-government from the implementation of Decree Law 4633, 4634 and 4635 of 2011. In that sense, two Ethnic Collective Reparation Subjects were protocolized, 25 prior consultation facilities were carried out, and the inclusion of the Ethnic Victims Public Policy was achieved in Development Plans, among others.

The entity continues working to guarantee victims participation and ensure their rights fulfillment.

(Fin/AVA/COG/RAM)