Behind the legal curtain

Social, cultural and religious practices and their impact on missing persons and the dead in Colombia

Bibliographic Data

ID12853509
AuthorsMayra Nuñez Pastor (0000-0002-7430-7780, Universidad de Buenos Aires, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume102
Issue914
Pages721-743
Publication date2020-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Review of the Red Cross (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1607-5889 • E-ISSN: 1816-3831
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1816383121000722
OpenAlexW3213746927
LanguageEN
References cited7

This paper examines social, cultural and religious factors that affect the implementation of international humanitarian law concerning dead and missing persons in non-international armed conflicts. To this end, the behaviour of both armed groups and civil society is studied. The argument made in the paper is that in some cases endogenous and exogenous systems of value (social, religious and cultural understandings), operating within the logic of armed non-State actors and within local communities, should be considered by policies concerning the search for missing persons. The Colombian armed conflict is used as case study; the social, cultural and religious practices of the National Liberation Army and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army are analyzed as examples. Likewise, social and cultural values within affected populations can impact on post-conflict mechanisms agreed upon by the parties concerning the search for missing persons, and vice versa. Consequently, customs and traditions such as the “adoption” of unidentified buried people by local communities (social resignification of the dead) and the practices of indigenous communities are reviewed in order to establish a holistic framework

Argument (complex analysis · Armed conflict · Social conflict · Conflict, Peace, and Violence in Colombia

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Open DOIOpen Access