What is the Agrarian Tribunal and why did the Ombudsman question its creation?

During the presentation of the third Follow-up report Al Final peace agreement among the missing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-EP and the Colombian statespeak Mediatorthe subject of the land reformwhich aims to create more support for farmers on the ground.

It is important to mention that the The Minister of Agriculture announced the signing of an agreement with the Colombian Federation of Cattle Breeders (Fedegán) for the purchase of three million hectares which will be incorporated into the Land fundwhich did not materialize although it was said that there were other interested parties.

However, the Mediator considers that the procedure must be unified for those who want to offer their land and “Be clear on the origin of resources, because the great destinations of resources must conform to the rationality of expenditure.”

Added to the above, it is necessary to create the figure of the land judge, as a civil servant who, in rural areas, in the territory, can resolve conflicts related to land tenure or occupation, whose decisions must be taken with a gender focus.

The Delegate for Agrarian Affairs and Lands of the Mediator, Carlos Aurelio Merchan Tarazonaassured that, “we must put in place judges capable of reaching the peasant, that is to say, specialized in the land and capable of attending to all the conflicts, which avoid the escalation of the conflict thanks to the use of mechanisms alternatives, among others.

The Mediator Carlos Camargo concluded in his speech by stating that “he Congress of the Republic, Charged in his wisdom with ensuring this commitment, he must carefully assess whether or not to create a new body apart from this sought-after figure to deal with rural areas.

After signing the peace agreements between the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces one was bounded Comprehensive rural reformas an apparatus for access to justice, with complementary elements to the traditional ones to resolve conflicts of use and possession of land, such as territorial and gender approaches.

Also, in the design of Havana Accords there Agrarian jurisdiction was necessary to meet the commitment to create a Land fund this would allow the distribution of 3 million hectares to poor peasants and the formalization of 7 million hectares to settlers on vacant land.

However, the jurisdiction was not created, which had consequences, according to an official government report Congress of the Republic in 2022 compared to Land fund; Nearly two million hectares have been incorporated into it, only 12 properties with 18,910 hectares have no previous occupations.

Currently, agrarian processes are carried out under the powers of the National Land Agency during the legislation of the agreements and for matters related to the conflict, which requires having Agrarian jurisdiction so that you know the legal step of the unique procedure in these processes.

For this reason the constitutional Court issued Judgment SU-288 of 2022 in which, corroborating the criterion that judicial decisions on vacant land belong to public law and appending that there is an obligation to unify the jurisprudence on the constitutional aspects of the recovery of vacant lots.

The project of the Agrarian jurisdiction is currently being processed in the Congress and it was approved in the first round in plenary of the Senate in December 2022, which includes the creation of the Agrarian and Rural Court.

The project recognizes the importance and gender equality in relation to the rights of peasant, ethnic, victim and indigenous communities, who must have access to justice. where the national government must connect the joint of the Rural and agricultural jurisdiction with the government of each of the cities during the transition regime.