Transitional Justice in Times of Conflict: Colombia’s Ley de Justicia y Paz

The authors of this Article were committed to researching the impact of the paramilitary demobilization process “on the ground”-that is, conducting qualitative research that would allow us to test the validity of different debates with the goal of generating recommendations on how future conflict and post-conflict countries might benefit from the merging of DDR and transitional justice. In this text we draw upon the preliminary results of our research on the individual and collective demobilization programs. The first stage of the project included 112 in-depth interviews with demobilized combatants from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ej rcito del Pueblo (FARC-EP) (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army), the Ejjrcito de Liberaci6n Nacional (ELN), and the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia).