Cincinnati Law Lecture to Examine Significance, Impact of Colombian Peace Process

The Colombian peace agreement is the result of a four-year negotiation between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). The agreement is supposed to end a more than 50-year armed internal conflict in Colombia. The FARC-EP will transform from a terrorist group into a legitimate political actor. 

• Has the Colombian government negotiated a new political and economic order for Colombia? 
• How rural development is linked to the Peace Agreement? 
• Might Colombian and U.S. companies face potential criminal and civil cases for possible financing of the armed conflict? 
• Why do segments of the Colombian society reject the peace agreement? 
• Does the peace agreement truly end the armed conflict in Colombia? 

These are only some of the not-so-obvious questions to answer.

About the war: The over five decades long conflict between the Colombian government and FARC has left more than 220,000 people dead and driven nearly seven million Colombians from their homes – the highest number of internally displaced people in the world, according to the United Nations. As noted in a July 7, 2016 Washington Post article, “Colombia’s peace process: What’s next and what’s at stake” by Jake Miroff, the peace deal holds a lot of promise for Colombia, a nation of 50 million that is the U.S’s closest ally in South America. But it faces a major hurdle: voter approval. 

About the lecturer: The guest lecturer, Ildiko Szegedy-Maszak, is affiliated with Javeriana University, Bogota, Colombia. She has worked for Baker & McKenzie Law Office Budapest securities and Finance Practice Group and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Bogota Law School. She was educated at the Universidad Externada de Colombia, the London School of Economics and Political Science, ELTE University of Sciences Budapest. Szegedy-Maszak served as honorary consul of Hungary in Bogota. A published author, she has written numerous scholarly papers corporate social responsibility in public policy issues, Colombian welfare state and trade agreements. 

This event is sponsored by Cincinnati Law’s Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights and the Masters in Law for Foreign Trained Lawyers program.