Movimiento por la Paz - MPDL. (Colombia 2023-2024)

Movimiento por la Paz (MPDL) is an independent, secular, and progressive NGO that has been working since 1983 for the full realization of Human Rights, democratic governance, equality, and solidarity among people and nations. Because peace is much more than just the absence of war.

Although the peace agreements between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP were signed in 2016, inequality and violence persist, particularly affecting those who fight for their rights: community activists, human rights defenders, representatives of displaced persons' organizations, land claimants, and others. For this reason, MPDL works to empower communities, especially victims of the conflict, so that they can exercise their rights to participation, a dignified life in peace, and development in safe conditions. In this regard, MPDL promotes access for young people, peasants, Indigenous people, and Afro-descendants to their rights as citizens and as victims, and enhances their influence on local public policy. Additionally, MPDL works with women who have been victims of sexual violence within the context of the conflict, fostering spaces for participation and rights defense, denouncing their situation, promoting their protection, providing psychological care, and seeking the restoration of the historical memory and cultural identity damaged by the conflict.

This is part of the work I did while working with MPDL in Cartagena, Aguachica, Montes de María, San pablo Bolívar, Barranquilla and Tumaco during my stay in 2023-2024.