Missing from Colombia, FARC Peace Negotiations: Women

The Christian Science Monitor -- Nancy Sánchez has worked as a human rights defender for decades in Colombia, most recently in Putumayo. She is currently a Woman PeaceMaker in residence at the University of San Diego. Milburn Line is executive director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at the University of San Diego. From 2007 to 2009, he managed a project in Colombia that worked with civil society and government institutions working to protect human rights. 

Today, the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgency group meet in Oslo, Norway, to begin deliberations aimed at concluding a 48-year civil war. The Colombian armed conflict has resulted in the estimated deaths of around 100,000 people, forcibly displaced more than 5 million people, and produced as many forced disappearances as the most egregious cases in Latin America. In addition to the terrible human costs, the violence has facilitated an atmosphere for illicit drug trafficking and paralyzed the nation’s economic development. (Full Story)