Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said the final wording of the landmark Victims Law legislation will be agreed upon by June 10 in time for UN secretary general’s visit,according to a presidential communique.
President Juan Manuel Santos expressed confidence that by June, the Senate and the House of Representatives will have agreed on the final text of the Victims Law so it can be ratified and put in place in time for General Secretary of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon’s two-day visit.
“He is coming in 15 days and I want to make the most of his visit,” said Santos.
During a ceremony of the handover of land deeds in Tibu, a town in the Norte de Santander department, Santos said “[It] is going to change the history of the country in many ways.”
He added that people should not have too high expectations for the law which passed the final Senate debate yesterday. “The compensation fund for the reparation of victims is mostly symbolic, for this reason one must not have too high expectations. But reparation is very important because every victim wants to be recognized as a victim.”
Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry said that the $1.1 billion needed to finance the law this year “will be drawn largely from taxes,” reported El Espectador.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights heralded the “historic progress” represented by the Victims Law, in a communique as reported by news agency EFE.
The UN labelled the law, which it will to review and analyze once the text is finalized, “A new horizon of hope in the search for peace and reconciliation.”