The Invisible Women: Violence against women in armed conflict and the inclusion of the Gender Mainstreaming in peacebuilding :The Case of Colombia

Abstract

Colombian women have been involved in the armed conflict in multiple ways. However, this is an invisible story that rarely appears in the official documents. Under these circumstances women have been victims of a variety of violent actions based on their gender. The lack of social recognition of women as equal subjects, the gender stereotypes emphasizing discrimination against women, and the constant social belief of men’s superiority increases the vulnerability of women in Colombia’s conflict. This document focuses on the varieties of violence against women in the Colombia’s armed conflict and the importance of the inclusion of a gender mainstreaming in the peace negotiation process that is now taking place in La Habana – Cuba, between the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). This thesis will demonstrate the invisibility of the disproportionate impact of armed conflict on women and the necessity of a specific public policy that responds effectively to the differential impact of conflict and the inclusion of women’s right in the final peace agreement. This will be revealed through a qualitative description based on the systematization of testimonies of women involved in the conflict, information collected from governmental and international human rights organizations, medias, national reports, national and international literature on the topic, the perception of the author who is herself a Colombian young woman and through the result of a field research carried out in Colombia by the author from November 2013 to February 2014.