Colombia’s transitional justice system has receives more than 2,000 applications of law experts who hope to be appointed to fill one of the 51 posts in the war crimes tribunal and truth commission.
The number of magistrates to be picked for the transitional system is almost as large as the total number of magistrates currently working in one of Colombia’s high courts, reported weekly Semana.
The job ahead is titanic. Colombia’s 52-year armed conflict between the State and the Marxist FARC rebels has left millions of victims and tens of thousands alleged war criminals.
The transitional justice system’s committee in charge of picking the right people for the unprecedented job published the names of more than 2,135 aspirants on Monday.
By the end of September the committee is supposed to have made the decision on which candidates will take part in the highly anticipated war crimes tribunal and truth commission that seek justice of the innumerable war crime victims.
Additionally, special transitional units will have to filled to look for the tens of thousands of Colombians who went missing in the conflict and the dismantling of criminal-political structures that have corrupted leadership in Colombia since the 1980s.
Transitional justice system vacancies
- 20 magistrates for the war crimes tribunal
- 18 magistrates for additional units
- 13 supplement magistrates
- 4 foreign judicial experts
The election of the court magistrates is likely to stir controversy as 24,400 state officials and more than 12,000 civilians could be called to respond for war crimes, according to the Prosecutor General.
The Defense Ministry recently handed in a list of 12,000 military officials either convicted or charged of war crimes.
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal received files on 12,000 alleged military war criminals
With congressional elections in March next year and presidential elections two months later, the court should make some major political waves. Truth and justice is not going to go down easy after more than half a decade of war propaganda and impunity.
