On August 12 and 13, CITpax organised a seminar in Santa Marta to promote the exchange of ideas and best practices and to consider alternatives and solutions to the existing problems on access to justice, as a crucial element towards building citizenship. The seminar counted on the participation of institutions and international and civil society organizations.

 
The seminar is a pilot project of the Observatory, under its new line of action on reconciliation and building citizenship of communities affected by violence, in particular with regards to guaranteeing access to justice.

 
The event was held in collaboration with the Governor’s Office and the University of Magdalena and sponsored by: ´

Since its creation, CITpax includes among its main programmes, accompanying and supporting the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration processes (DDR), and the regulation and implementation of the legal framework relating to the reincorporation of the demobilised and the prosecution of the serious crimes committed in Colombia. Within this framework, CITpax has carried out different initiatives in order to facilitate a platform to consider, with key actors in the process and international experts on transitional justice the legal proposals in relation to the investigation of the most heinous crimes. Following this, CITpax focused its work in the design of follow-up tools to monitor the process.

In 2007, in collaboration with the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development -AECID-, CITpax set up an office in Bogota where the International Observatory for the DDR Process and the Implementation of the Justice and Peace Law is based. The Observatory is composed of four branches: DDR; Justice; Public Policies; and Victims. Based on information gathered from both international and civil society organizations and through fieldwork and gatherings with regional actors, working documents and analytical reports are elaborated to identify progress and obstacles to promote the national and international standards on criminal law and transitional justice, in particular the victims´ rights to justice, truth and reparation.

CITpax presented, in December in Bogota and in April 2009 in Madrid, the first report of the Observatory, available at www.citpax.org (available only in Spanish).