The “War on Terror” and the Principle of Distinction in International Humanitarian La

Las nuevas amenazas a la seguridad que han surgido en los últimos años están poniendo seriamente en juego la importancia y la implementación del derecho internacional humanitario. Este artículo investiga el impacto de la guerra del terror en el principio de distinción en el derecho internacional humanitario. Examina, de forma específica, prácticas estatales, por ejemplo, de los Estados Unidos, que han cedido frente al surgimiento de nuevas reglas relativas al principio de distinción. Para esto, se hace un análisis de dicho principio bajo dos perspectivas: blancos concretos y captura

"Padre, perdónalos porque no saben lo que hacen": una perspectiva semi-compatibilista

Si se interpreta la primera palabra de Cristo en la cruz, con referencia a los verdugos que causaron su crucifixión, en clave de omnisciencia divina luterana y ausencia de posibilidades alternativas, surgiría una aparente contradicción en cuanto a la responsabilidad moral y el deber de aquellos: ¿Cómo sostener su responsabilidad moral si no contaban con posibilidades alternativas, y si al parecer no sabían lo que hacían, y cómo atribuirles deberes que no podían cumplir? Esto se puede resolver desde de una perspectiva semi-compatibilista, y responder, así, que: 1) la ausencia de posibilidades alternativas y la ignorancia no excluyen el que los verdugos puedan ser considerados moralmente responsables por la crucifixión de Cristo, y 2) la imposibilidad de cumplir con ciertos deberes no excluye el que los verdugos tuviesen dichos deberes y pudieran ser considerados moralmente responsables por su incumplimiento.

The project of land restitution in Colombia: an illustration of the civilizing force of hypocrisy?

This article offers a theoretical interpretation of the dispositions on land restitution contained in the famous “Victims’ Bill”, which was debated in the Colombian Congress during the year 2008. The bill included specific mechanisms aimed at guaranteeing the restitution of land to victims of the Colombian armed conflict. At the time, the bill was endorsed by all the main political actors in the country –notably the government and the elites that support it, on the one hand, and victims’ and human rights organizations and other opposition groups, on the other–. The fact that the restitution of land to victims of the Colombian armed conflict was being considered as a serious possibility by all political actors in the country seemed to indicate the existence of a consensus among actors whose positions are ordinarily opposed, on an issue that has traditionally led to high levels of polarization. This consensus is quite puzzling, because it seems to be at odds with the interests and/or the conceptions of justice advocated by these political actors, and because the restitution of land faces enormous difficulties both from a factual and a normative point of view, which indicates that it may not necessarily be the best alternative for dealing with the issue of land distribution in Colombia. This article offers an interpretation of said consensus, arguing that it is only an apparent consensus in which the actors are actually misrepresenting their interests and conceptions of justice, while at the same time adopting divergent strategies of implementation aimed at fulfilling their true interests. Nevertheless, the article concludes that the common adherence by all actors to the principle of restorative justice might bring about its actual realization, and thus produce an outcome that, in spite (and perhaps even because) of being unintended, might substantively contribute to solving the problem of unequal land distribution in Colombia. Even though the article focuses in some detail on the specificities of the 2008 Bill, it attempts to make a general argument about the state of the discussion on how to deal with the issue of land distribution in the country. Consequently, it may still be relevant today, especially considering that a new Bill on land restitution is currently being discussed in Congress, which includes the same restitution goals as the Victims’ Bill and many of its procedural and substantive details, and which therefore seems to reflect a similar consensus to the one analyzed in the article.

Diagnóstico de las relaciones bilaterales entre Colombia y República Dominicana en torno al tema del narcotráfico desde 1998 hasta el 2010

El tema del narcotráfico ha sido ampliamente tratado, así como el caso de las drogas en Colombia, pero la afectación de dicho problema no ha sido analizada desde la República Dominicana y mucho menos desde la relación bilateral entre esta y Colombia. Aunque el tema es de gran relevancia en la agenda internacional, así como en la agenda interna de cada uno de estos Estados, no es el tema principal en la relación bilateral, donde los asuntos comerciales tienen mayor importancia, aún cuando hay ciertos mecanismos que buscan eliminar el tráfico ilegal de estupefacientes. En esta investigación, se busca dar un diagnóstico de las relaciones bilaterales y de aquellos instrumentos existentes, específicamente aquellos implementados desde la acogida internacional del término responsabilidad compartida en el año 1998 hasta el año 2010, para determinar la efectividad de los mismos y de aquellos factores que no son precisamente resultantes de las relaciones bilaterales pero que sí afectan de una u otra manera el tráfico de drogas ilegales entre estos dos países. Así, se buscará encontrar las debilidades, en los instrumentos bilaterales entre Colombia y República Dominicana y hacer recomendaciones para hacerlos más efectivos.

A comparative study of two Casas de la Cultura in Bogota: Tunjuelito and Usaquen

Es un estudio descriptivo/exploratorio de dos Casas de la Cultura en Bogotá (Tunjuelito/Usaquén), basado en la revisión de documentos y recolección de datos a través de herramientas cualitativas, con aspectos cuantitativos en la presentación de datos por medio de cuadros de comparación. Presenta resultados de las siguientes categorías: grupos de interés, aspectos administrativos y productos.

Equilibrium Principle in Colombian Public Contracting

Public contracting in Colombia is conflicting and inefficient. It frequently leads to damage to State property. The Colombian legal system cannot assure efficient and transparent public contracting. The cause is the institutional environment characterized by high transaction costs. Colombian law worsens the process by recognizing the principle of economic equilibrium in public contracts. This principle increasese contract incompleteness and renders impossible the use of economic incentives to control the opportunism of the economic agents. The authors present the hypothesis that the economic equilibrium principle increases the conflictive nature of public contracting. They test the hypothesis empirically. The first section of the paper presents a summary of the literature on transaction costs economics, as well as the legal literature on the historical origin and the content of the economic equilibrium principle. The second section describes the methodology of the empirical study. The third section shows the empirical evidence of the effects that the economic equilibrium principle exerts over the public contracting. The last section presents the conclusions.

Networks and RegionalCompetitiveness: Towards a Transaction Cost Approach of Small-Scale Cooperation

A preoccupation with competition often dominates the study of governance. A focus on competition often unnecessarily precludes the possibility that regional institutions can suspend competition in certain areas and facilitate cooperation among potential rivals, thereby potentially contributing to their mutual success. In many ways companies cooperating through these types of networks have a greater degree of flexibility than firms which are forced to rely solely on hierarchies or markets for solutions to their problems. In order to fully understand how such networks work, this article first parses out differences in definitions of networks in order to understand how the type of network mentioned above actually differs from other uses of this term. Then it develops a theory of governance that goes beyond hierarchies and markets by demonstrating how this type of network can lead to reductions in transaction costs. This claim is illustrated on hand from examples of alternative forms of organization in Germany and Italy.

The voters of Colombia are free?

A fundamental principle of democracy is citizenship freedom. We suggest that a fair electoral contest is possible if a relationship between free will, electoral preferences and respect to the public institutions (constitutionalism) (section 1) exists. We focus on three illiberal practices that perturb the voter's decision: political clientelism and political markets (sections 2 to 4), media influence (which feeds on the voter's limited rationality and limited information) (section 5), and the suppression of opposition options (section 6). Later (section 8), we provide a brief balance and, additionally, we show how in Colombia the political system has missed opportunities to expand the voters' freedom. Our interpretation of the electoral process in Colombia is an appeal, supported on theoretical arguments and empirical evidence, to doubt about the voters' freedom. Also we make a call for more etudies.

Determinants of demand for antenatal care in Colombia

Even though antenatal care is universally regarded as important, determinants of demand for antenatal care have not been widely studied. Evidence concerning which and how socioeconomic conditions influence whether a pregnant woman attends or not at least one antenatal consultation or how these factors affect the absences to antenatal consultations is very limited. In order to generate this evidence, a two-stage analysis was performed with data from the Demographic and Health Survey carried out by Profamilia in Colombia during 2005. The first stage was run as a logit model showing the marginal effects on the probability of attending the first visit and an ordinary least squares model was performed for the second stage. It was found that mothers living in the pacific region as well as young mothers seem to have a lower probability of attending the first visit but these factors are not related to the number of absences to antenatal consultation once the first visit has been achieved. The effect of health insurance was surprising because of the differing effects that the health insurers showed. Some familiar and personal conditions such as willingness to have the last children and number of previous children, demonstrated to be important in the determination of demand. The effect of mother’s educational attainment was proved as important whereas the father’s educational achievement was not. This paper provides some elements for policy making in order to increase the demand inducement of antenatal care, as well as stimulating research on demand for specific issues on health.

The impact of a minimum pension on old age poverty and its budgetary cost. Evidence from Latin America

This paper examines the impact on old age poverty and the fiscal cost of universal minimum oldage pensions in Latin America using recent household survey data for 18 countries. Alleviatingold age poverty requires different approach from other age groups and a minimum pension islikely to be the only alternative available. First we measure old age poverty rates for all countries.Second we discuss the design of minimum pensions schemes, means-tested or not, as wellas the disincentive effects that they are expected to have on the economic and social behavior ofhouseholds including labor supply, saving and family solidarity. Third we use the household surveysto simulate the fiscal cost and the impact on poverty rates of alternative minimum pensionschemes in the 18 countries. We show that a universal minimum pension would substantiallyreduce poverty among the elderly except in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay where minimumpension systems already exist and poverty rates are low. Such schemes have much tobe commended in terms of incentives, spillover effects and administrative simplicity but have ahigh fiscal cost. The latter is a function of the age at which benefits are awarded, the prevailinglongevity, the generosity of benefits, the efficacy of means testing, and naturally the fiscal capacityof the country.