The professor of International Law at the CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU UCH) of Valencia Ruth Abril Stoffels is carrying out a research stay in Colombia to advance the project to identify gaps in international protection and assistance to girls who are recruited by groups armed. In this research work on the situation of “girl soldiers”, funded by the Generalitat Valenciana, researchers from Spain, Mexico and the United Kingdom collaborate to address the protection of children from European and Latin American perspectives. Furthermore, in November, València will host an international conference on this subject, organized by this CEU UCH research group. During her stay in Colombia, Professor Abril has held various work meetings with members of the State strategy on Transitional Justice for Peace in Colombia, such as Pedro Páez and the judge of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), Luisa López, and with members of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, such as Andreas Muller. According to Professor Abril, “in Colombia, the public policy of Transitional Justice for Peace aims to overcome the situation of armed conflict and serious and massive violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, through the creation and implementation of transitional mechanisms”. “The objective – she continues – is to guarantee the rights of the victims to truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition, among them the boys and girls recruited by the guerrillas.” During her stay in Colombia she has met with representatives of humanitarian organizations and victims’ associations that work with former combatants who joined the ranks of armed groups as minors, with whom she has collected information of interest for the project. Ruth Abril has participated in various work sessions with Colombian professors and researchers dedicated to the protection of minors recruited by armed groups in the country, among them, the professor of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana of Bogotá, Rafael Prieto, as well as with its dean , Juan Carlos Botero, and Professor Laura Gamarra, from the Catholic University of Colombia, also in Bogotá. At the Javeriana University of Bogotá, CEU UCH professor Ruth Abril has participated as a guest speaker in the Doctoral Seminar in Legal Sciences on ‘Isolation and use of boy and girl soldiers’, in which Transitional Justice officials have participated for Peace in Colombia, professors, students and experts, to share the European and Colombian perspectives on this matter. This stay, together with the one previously carried out in Colombia by the professor of Criminal Law at the CEU UCH, Javier García González, is part of the preparation of the International Congress on girl soldiers to be held in Valencia, organized by the CEU UCH, from the 4th to next November 6. This Congress is held with the collaboration of the Center for International Humanitarian Law Studies (CEDIH) of the Spanish Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Unicef, the humanitarian demining project of the Swiss NGO Geneva Call Colombia, the Corporación Vínculos and the Generalitat Valenciana. TEAM MEMBERS The team of researchers of this project, led by Professor Ruth Abril, is made up of professors from the departments of Law and Educational Sciences of the CEU UCH Javier García González, Rosa Pascual, Elena Juaristi, Rosa García Bellido and Chesca Torres. And by the researchers Gabriela de la Paz Meléndez, from the Monterrey Technological Institute, in Mexico; Olga Martín Ortega, from the University of Greenwich, and Thomas Hansen Hansen, from Ulster University, in the United Kingdom; Yaelle Cacho and Rosario Ojinaga Ruiz, from the University of Cantabria; Lucana Estévez, from the University of Gran Canaria; Carmen Quesada, Teresa Marcos and Andrés de Castro, from UNED; Sonia Hernández Pradas, from the Francisco de Vitoria University; and Montserrat Abad, from the Carlos III University of Madrid. The project ‘Gaps in the protection and international assistance to girls associated with armed groups (NAAG)’ is financed by the Department of Education, Universities and Employment of the Generalitat Valenciana, within the aid to consolidated research groups (CIAICO/2022 /235).
