The 1991 Constitution as a Peace Agreement: A Discussion of the Anomalies

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Issue: Vol. 13 No. 1 (2011)
Section Papers


Keywords: Crisis of the state crisis of the political system violence.

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Authors

Francisco Gutiérrez-Sanín
Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Abstract

Twenty tears after the 1991 Constitution, and after having suffered endemic violence during the 1990s, and why not admit it, during the first decade of the 21st Century, it is relevant to make a balanced reflection on the effects the 1991 Constitution has had on the behavior both of the State and of the armed actors, particularly because some critics claims that the Constitution is an obstacle to ending the conflict because of its generous chart of rights, which they believe are designed to protect the bad guys and to keep the State’s hands tied. For others the Constitution has become a kind of fetish that must not be reformed, because any reform would compromise the democratic spaces that have been won and would lead to an escalation of violence. This article shows that neither is true: the chart of rights is not responsible for the problems of violence the country is experiencing, and the democratization vehicles established by the constitution are no panacea to end violence in Colombia. The article puts both the achievements and the unresolved dilemmas of the 1991 Constitution in proper perspective.
Author Biography

Francisco Gutiérrez-Sanín, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Profesor del Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Relaciones Internacionales – Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
How to Cite
Gutiérrez-Sanín, F. (2011). The 1991 Constitution as a Peace Agreement: A Discussion of the Anomalies. Estudios Socio-Jurídicos, 13(1), 419–447. Retrieved from https://revistas.urosario.edu.co/index.php/sociojuridicos/article/view/1517
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