This CAPAZ Policy Brief, written by Law Professor, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, was supported and sponsored by CAPAZ and the Centre for the Study of Latin American Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure (CEDPAL) at the University of Göttingen.

“This document highlights the importance of decolonizing state justice in a context of transitional justice, making it possible to develop and materialise legal pluralism, with a view to generating restorative processes that dignify the rights of the indigenous, Romany, black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal and Palenquero peoples, who have been affected by the armed conflict seriously and differentially, but most of all, disproportionately. The central idea of this document is as follows: ordinary law represents a monocultural hegemonic project, which disguises itself, changes its name, adopts struggles, and adapts itself, in order to silence subjects considered as “others” in their multiple and varied processes and cultural contexts. Oppression and exclusion, while not born in sphere of law, are often legitimised and deepened by it. Legal norms serve as mere statements of ideal forms of behaviour or rights, which in practice do not materialise especially in relation to the populations or peoples who could benefit most from the effective implementation of such norms”.

Author/researcher:

Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Retired Professor serving as lecturer at the School of Economics at Universidade de Coimbra (Portugal) and distinguished legal scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School (USA). Director emeritus of the Centre for Social Studies at Universidade de Coimbra and science coordinator of the Permanent Observatory for Portuguese Justice.

Download: Policy Brief 5-2020 CAPAZ (in Spanish, .pdf)

De Sousa Santos, B. For a decolonising articulation between state justice and traditional and customary justice. CAPAZ, Bogota: March 2020. 10 p. ISSN: 2711-0346

(NWText: Claudia Maya, based on CAPAZ PB5-2020. English version: Tiziana Laudato)