Colombia

About the Colombia Life Story Project

The internal displacement crisis in Colombia, affecting more than four million internally displaced persons (IDPs), is the most severe in the world after the crisis in Sudan. The situation is on the surface the result of a civil war which has pitted the government and allied paramilitary groups against left-wing guerrilla groups over the last 40 years. But the struggle for land is a major underlying cause. Drug trafficking and the presence of multinational mineral and agricultural companies have exacerbated the displacement crisis and the current prospects for a resolution to the conflict are slim.

Colombia has perhaps the world’s most advanced national legislation on internal displacement, but fails to implement it effectively. In January 2004, the Constitutional Court declared the government’s response to internal displacement to be in violation of the Constitution. In response, the government has allocated significant resources to IDPs. However, the effect is hampered by the ongoing conflict and the failure to address the causes of the displacement. For further background on the conflict and internal displacement in Colombia, see www.internal-displacement.org/countries/Colombia

The Colombian government's claims to have improved the human rights situation rely on indicators such as a fall in the number of displacements, massacres and homicides since it came to power in 2002. The use of these indicators to measure success in fighting the insurgency has been criticised by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and state control departments. Moreover, the government’s reliance on quantitative data also fails to account for the devastating personal impact for affected individuals.

“One of the strategies in Colombia, besides making the conflict invisible, is to debate numbers rather than human faces; this results in a lack of understanding of the significance of displacement.” (Project participant)

The overall aim of this project, carried out by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), in partnership with Panos London and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Colombia, was to go beyond the numbers to record and communicate the personal experiences of displacement in Colombia. While the stories and voices by themselves convey the devastation that forced displacement brings, they may also serve to balance impersonal official discourse on the conflict and its consequences.


Back to topPreparing to collect the life stories

A workshop took place in Bogotà in April 2006 to prepare participants to interview internally displaced people in their communities. It addressed listening and questioning skills, interview relationships and ethics, confidentiality, safety and security, topic development and recording techniques.

The participants came from six different regions of Colombia (Chocó province, Pasto, Bogota, Cucúta, Santa Marta and Norte de Santander) and from a wide range of backgrounds. They included five internally displaced people, three psychologists, a lawyer, a social worker and two community workers. This variety of backgrounds and experiences made it a lively workshop with much rich and in-depth discussion. Some of the “professionals” had valuable experience of conducting sensitive interviews with victims of trauma. The IDPs brought to the workshop a personal understanding of the impacts of displacement. It was the youngest participant, an IDP, who was the most eloquent in describing some of the less tangible impacts.

The overall focus was to gather personal experiences of the impact of displacement, rather than evidence-based testimonies of the events and abuses surrounding displacement. Guiding the project is the belief that perceptions and feelings are as important as facts. By letting IDPs tell their life stories, the displacement is contextualised and their strength and knowledge came forward. The individual becomes a narrator rather than a victim, with many experiences and opinions to share.

“Having the opportunity to tell your life story can be therapeutic; it can be a restoring and empowering experience.” (workshop participant)


Back to topTestimony collection and ongoing support

Following the workshop, participants returned to their areas to record and transcribe up to five interviews each. They took steps to make sure that interviewees were informed of how their testimonies would be used and to know what personal information they were comfortable to share publicly. Interviewers participated at a review meeting in July 2006 and an end-of-collection meeting in September at which they shared their experiences and offered each other on-going support and advice. Psychologists led sessions offering psychological support. Interviewers undertook thematic analyses of their own interviews, discussed and planned the publication of the stories, and learned about the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement by relating the issues and stories from their own interviews to these principles.

“It’s a great effort to give voice to those who have been silenced and crushed by the effects of the armed conflict. And it’s extremely positive to create motivated groups to work on this.” (Comments from a participant in the final evaluation)

The project has required significant commitment, time and resources from both the facilitators and the participants, yet its importance goes far beyond the tangible outcomes. The process of workshops, discussions and gathering life stories has a value in itself for local groups and displaced individuals. In this project participants have learned practical skills related to oral testimony, but the project has also involved dealing with values and attitudes, and participants have had to learn to deal with the strong emotional aspect of the work. Participants have also contributed to building the agendas of the workshop and meetings and have taken a lead role in facilitating certain sessions.


Back to topReading committee and editing

A reading committee of four people from NRC Colombia and IDMC read all 54 life stories and, according to criteria established in the review meetings by the participants, they selected 19 life stories to form the basis for a book and to be presented here. A professional editor was hired to ensure narrative continuity without changing the substance or style of the personal accounts.

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