Yale World Fellows and the Columbian Comminuty at Yale: “The Challenges of Reintegrating Ex-Combatants and Building peace in Columbia: Are We Changing One War for Another”

Event time: 
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 5:00pm
Location: 
Kroon Hall, Room G01 See map
195 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06520
Event description: 

The Yale World Fellows and the Columbian Comminuty at Yale present:

The Challenges of Reintegrating Ex-Combatants and Building peace in Columbia: Are We Changing One War for Another”.

Negotiators from the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have signed preliminary agreements on the three of their five-point agenda. Peace appears simultaneously tantalizingly close but also extraordinarily difficult to imagine given the structural challenges facing Colombia. This discussion, based on Dr. Alex Fattal’s years of anthropological research into the current model of demobilizing guerrilla fighters and Paula Moreno’s work with communities at risk, will address the question: How should Colombia re-configure its strategy for reintegrating former rebels in the event of a peace agreement so that the conflict does not merely transform into another type of warfare, but rather give birth to a lasting peace?

Paula Moreno, Yale World Fellow 2014, President Visible Hands Corporation
From 2007 – 2010, she served as the Minister of Culture in Colombia—the first Afro-Colombian woman and the youngest person to hold a cabinet-level ministry in the country’s history. Moreno founded and directs Manos Visibles (www.manosvisibles), a nonprofit organization established to promote social inclusion and peace building in Colombia by strengthening organizations supporting urban youth and women, with an emphasis on high-risk minority communities. Since 2010, Visible Hands has reached more than 500 community leaders and organizations that influence more than 25,000 Colombians.

Alex Fattal, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Mahindra Humanities Center
Dr. Fattal completed his PhD in Anthropology with a secondary field in Critical Media Practice in 2014. His research focuses on the role of media in the Colombian armed conflict and combines work in the social sciences, digital humanities, and documentary arts. Alex work in Colombia dates back to 2001, and he has also conducted long-term research in South Africa.

Admission: 
Free
Open to: 
General Public