Reparation for victims of sexual violence: a proposal : analysis of reparation measures of sexual violence in the victims’ law and other experiences

Abstract

The 10 of June of 2011, the 1448 Law or the Victims’ Law was signed by the president of Colombia, and from that moment the law went into force. This Law has got broad support for all the sectors of the Colombian Society and it is perceived as a historical step to redress the harm that the conflict of more than 50 years has produced. With no doubt one of the violations that have been present in the Colombian armed conflict is the sexual violence, which the diverse groups have used as a weapon of war. The result, until the 1st of June 2014 are 5.440 victims of this crime, but it has to be clear the number can be higher because of the invisibility of this practice and because the conflict continues. The main objective of the research is to analyze the guidelines provided by the law for the reparation program in Colombia and especially the measures designed to repair these crimes. In order to do that, some tools of other experiences are going to be studied and used to do a proposal. In this study it is argued that in the Victims’ Law various measures can be found that aim at the reparation of the harm suffered by the victims of sexual violence; nevertheless, these initiatives must be accompanied or complemented by other initiatives in order to give the victims an integral and successful reparation.