German-Colombian Peace Institute CAPAZ

The Colombian peace process between the Colombian government and the guerrilla organization FARC is despite all difficulties and imponderables one of the few rays of hope in the current worldwide war. In order to support the peace process in the areas of research, teaching and consultancy, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has been supporting the establishment and work of a German-Colombian Peace Institute (Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz (CAPAZ)) in Bogotá since the end of 2016 with funds from the Federal Foreign Office. The Institute has since become the nucleus of a broad academic network within Colombia and between Colombia and Germany in which the central themes of the peace process are dealt with. In particular, universities from regions of Colombia that are most affected by the conflict are involved.
The project is carried out by a consortium of German and Colombian research and educational institutions. The scientific director of the Instituto CAPAZ is Prof. Dr. Stefan Peters, who also holds a professorship for peace research at the Law Faculty of Justus Liebig University in Giessen. The founding members of the consortium on the German side are PRIF, Justus Liebig University Giessen (consortium leader), Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Freie Universität Berlin and Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. The Colombian founding institutions are the Universidad Nacional (consortium leader), the Universidad de los Andes, the Universidad del Rosario, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, and the Universidad Externado de Colombia.
In 2018, eight further Colombian and two further German universities joined the consortium as associated partners. These are the following universities in Colombia: Universidad de Antioquia (Medellín), Universidad de Caldas (Manizales), Universidad del Cauca (Popayán), Universidad de Ibagué (Ibagué), Universidad Industrial de Santander (Bucaramanga), Universidad de Medellín (Medellín), Universidad del Norte (Barranquilla), Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (Medellín). In Germany, these are the University of Erfurt and the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Eichstätt/Bavaria).
A period of ten years is planned for the establishment of the Institute. Following the successfully completed establishment phase (2016-2019), the project is currently in the institutionalisation phase (2020-2023). A consolidation phase (until 2026) is planned for the following years. Two ongoing research projects in which PRIF is participating as part of the Instituto CAPAZ are “Violence against Social Activists: Causes, Patterns, and Transformations” and “The impact of the collective reincorporation of former FARC-EP fighters on the local reconstruction of the social fabric in Colombia”.