German-Colombian Peace Institute CAPAZ

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. 

Over the years, CAPAZ has significantly expanded its network of associated members, in particular by including universities from Colombia’s conflict-affected regions. Currently, in addition to PRIF, CAPAZ brings together eleven German and 26 Colombian universities. Since 2019, CAPAZ has been recognized as one of five DAAD Centers of Excellence in Research and Teaching.

Following the successful establishment of the institute (2016-2019) and its institutionalization (2020-2023), CAPAZ is currently in its final funding phase (2024-2028) and is exploring options for sustainable funding beyond 2028. Since 2017, PRIF has been participating in a series of collaborative research projects with a focus on the territorial dynamics of violence and community-level peacebuilding. For further information, see the projects “Violence against Social Activists: Causes, Patterns, and Transformations”, “The impact of the collective reincorporation of former FARC-EP fighters on the local reconstruction of the social fabric in Colombia”, and the “Digital Archive with Social Families of Searchers in Colombia”.