The Double Crisis in the Colombian Borderlands: Assessing the Humanitarian-Security Nexus
CONPEACE Cross-Stakeholder
27 February 08:00
Embassy of Canada to Colombia, Bogotá
This event, held at the Embassy of Canada to Colombia, Bogotá, on 27 February 2020, brought together members of the Colombian government, the international community, academia, and civil society to discuss the double crisis in Colombia. The country is currently facing both a major humanitarian emergency (related to the massive influx of Venezuelan refugees as well as returning displaced Colombians to their communities of origin) and insecurity. The forum put particular emphasis on the challenges in the Colombian-Venezuelan borderlands. The event aimed at facilitating a dialogue between different sectors in order to contribute to increase our understanding of the double crisis, to identify possible solutions that could mitigate the double crisis and the ways existing best practices could be replicated both vertically and horizontally in Colombia.
The forum was attended by seven representatives of civil society, seven members of the Colombian government and security forces, eleven representatives of the international community, and eight researchers working at Colombian, US, and UK universities. 14 of the attending participants were female. The forum was attended by representatives of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. The border regions César, La Guajira, Nariño, and Norte de Santander were represented in the forum.