Restorative justice in the rulings of the Inter-American Court regarding Colombian cases: are symbolic reparations applicable?

Abstract

This article evaluates the way in which restorative justice operates in the different sentences, both of the Constitutional Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, compared to the way in which the requests for symbolic reparations to the victims of the armed conflict in Colombia have been treated. In that sense, verifying the way in which symbolic reparation has worked in the sentences handed down by the Inter-American Court within the Constitutional Court allows us to resolve the question regarding whether the paradigm of restorative justice is applied in Colombia and what mechanisms are available for this. The research was conducted using a qualitative approach, which included a documentary search recorded in bibliographic files and the review of reports on various cases from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Colombian Constitutional Court related to requests for symbolic reparations in the context of the armed conflict in Colombia, as well as an examination of their compliance. All of this led to reviewing the concepts of symbolic reparation and restorative justice in the midst of the atrocious events of the Colombian armed conflict.