WOLA (The Washington Office on Latin America), Witness for Peace, and The Latin American Working Group (LAWG), invite you to a round-table discussion on
The Peace Process in Colombia: How Communities and Organizations Are Working Together for a Better Future
With:
Marcia Mejía Chirimia
Indigenous Leader and Human Rights Defender
Thursday, October 20
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
WOLA
1666 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20009
To RSVP, please complete the form to the right.
For more information, contact Sebastian Bernal at (202) 797-2171 or sbernal@wola.org.
We hope you are able to join us.
Marcia Mejía Chirimia is an indigenous leader of the Sia people in the southwestern Pacific region of Colombia. She became a victim of the armed conflict in 2010 when her community was displaced to the city of Buenaventura due to threats from the armed groups operating in the river. After eleven months of displacement and living in a shelter, Marcia and her community made an autonomous return to their territory and re-founded their community as the Santa Rosa de Guayacán Humanitarian and Biodiverse Reservation, to protect their land and establish a territory of peace only for the unarmed civilian population.
Marcia now defends her ancestral community’s culture and human rights, focusing in particular on women’s rights. She works with ACIVA, a network of indigenous communities in the Colombian department of Valle del Cauca, and is also a spokeswoman for CONPAZ (Communities Building Peace in their Territories), a network active in 13 departments of Colombia, made up of 135 campesino, Afro-Colombian, indigenous, and other organizations that exchange experiences of protection in their territories by working on non-violent initiatives, which seek to guarantee peace with social justice, and the defense of their territories.
Marcia will present on community peace building initiatives and the current impasse the peace process in Colombia faces, with particular emphasis on how women, indigenous populations, and other marginalized communities are impacted.