Colombia’s National University announced Wednesday it will host a public forum on agricultural reform that seeks citizen participation in peace talks between the government and rebel group FARC.
The forum will be held in collaboration with the United Nations between December 17 and 19 in the university’s Leon de Greiff auditorium, the university said in a press release.
According to the university, the negotiators — currently in Cuba to seek a negotiated end to Colombia’s 48-year-old armed conflict — “have agreed to launch the first space for participation at the [Peace] Talks Table by convening the forum called ‘Comprehensive Agrarian Development Policy (Territorial Focus)’ in Bogota.”
Colombia’s largest and most prominent public university said to be “grateful for the confidence and confirms its interest and willingness” to hold the forum that aims to indirectly involve Colombian civilian organizations in the peace talks between government and rebels.
In order to end the armed conflict, the FARC and the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos have agreed to include a rigid agriculture reform in the peace talks agenda.