The previous chapter discussed some of the more structural problems with how transitional justice (TJ) and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) view and categorize the people that benefit from and participate in these mechanisms, and how that approach does not help to promote reconciliation and gendered transformation. This chapter looks at how Colombia's reparation and reincorporation processes incorporate a gender perspective. It thus answers the first part of the question guiding this book: what are the gendered dynamics of current reparation and reintegration laws and policies on the ground, and do they effectively transform structural gender inequality? Early DDR and TJ processes in Colombia, such as the demobilization processes of the 1990s, or the Justice and Peace Law (JPL) of the mid-2000s, did not have a clear gendered perspective. In the last decade, Colombia has started to address the gendered impacts of its decades-long conflict. Its 2016 peace process was widely commended for its inclusion of a gendered perspective, and the Victims’ Law too has a ‘differential perspective’. What change does this make to the way in which peacebuilding and reincorporation are approached on the ground? This chapter will contrast the way in which gender is formally integrated in reparation and reincorporation policies with the ways in which conceptions of gender and gendered changes are – or are not – translated into concrete actions. It will analyse what impact these actions have on women's positions and gender relations, describing how, in some cases, well-intended strategies and projects can end up having counterproductive effects.

The ‘differential perspective’ of reparation and Reintegration

The 2011 Victims’ Law adopted a so-called differential perspective, which aims to counter the situation of vulnerability of certain groups of victims due to their age, gender, sexual orientation and disability, to protect their rights and enable their participation. Rather than a gender perspective per se, it offers a more intersectional view of how people have been affected differently by conflict depending on the intersection of different axes of inequality, including, but not limited to, gender (Crenshaw 1989). Furthermore, the Law adopts a ‘transformative perspective’, understood in Article 5 as the intention to ‘eliminate patterns of discrimination and marginalisation … to prevent repetition’ and ‘restore or reconstruct a stable and dignified life project for the victims’.