The Comision Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz is an organisation dedicated to the defence of Human Rights. Its roots are in International Human Rights and also in the rights of peoples to defend victims of Human Rights violations and of state terrorism in their search for truth, justice and reparation. Justicia y Paz accompanies 14 projects of civil resistance conducted countrywide by afro-colombian, indigenous and farming communities, as well as some basic social organisations.

Justicia y Paz was born, in April 2002, as a splinter group originally part of a former Comision Intercongregacional de Justicia y Paz, which existed from 1998 until its dissolution in 2002. This former organisation was linked to the official structures of the Colombian Catholic church, whereas the present Comision Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz is independant of any church structure. It is however composed of members of different churches and religions (laypeople and clergymen) as well as of non-believers from various sectors of the Colombian Left and of varied professional backgrounds.

Justicia y Paz embraces a political position which actively denounces the intellectual and material reponsability of the Colombian state in the implementation of the paramilitary strategy, particularly the use of this irregular paramilitary armed force strategy to repress and displace poor farmers thus helping the national oligarchy in its appropriation of the country's land and natural resources. In this way, the Comision denounces a model of society which the Colombian state is trying to impose, with the complicity of some foreign interests, by brutal force. Likewise, Justicia y Paz is claiming that the internal armed conflict in Colombia is linked to the existence of a social conflict resulting from a structurally unjust and antidemocratic society in which, every day, millions of Colombians become poorer and are dispossessed of their land. This explains the organisation's belief that a search for negociated solutions to the social and political armed conflict affecting the country must involve the building of concrete alternatives to the socio-political and economic roots of the war. These alternatives are being developed by communities and basic social organisations through civilian resistance and affirmation of their rights amidst the armed conflict.

In this context, Justicia y Paz has developed a methodology of support of communities, called "Integral Accompaniment", which is divided into three main strategical directions, which complement one another :



1) Firstly, the permanent "field work":
 The physical presence maintained by these field teams is an important part of the protection mechanisms afforded to the communities in civilian resistance, but their primary aim is community empowerment through popular education and "organisational reinforcement.

2) politico-legal strategies:
Evidenced in a series of legal actions in national and international law, which are put forward by the legal team of Justicia y Paz, to fight for justice in the face of Human Rights violations committed by the Colombian state against these communities, and as well to promote and defend their political, economical, social and cultural rights.

3) politico-symbolic strategies:
Finally, the politico-symbolic strategies aim at increasing the visibility of the civil resistance fight of the communities to enhance the protection of each community by increasing pressure on the Colombian government, particularly by the establishment of an international support network.