Memory, Gender, and Intersectionality Approaches at the Colombian Comisión para el Esclarecimiento de la Verdad, la Convivencia y la No Repetición (CEV)

Memory, Gender, and Intersectionality Approaches at the Colombian Comisión para el Esclarecimiento de la Verdad, la Convivencia y la No Repetición (CEV)

The Colombian Comisión para el Esclarecimiento de la Verdad, la Convivencia y la No Repetición (CEV) is the first in its kind to include a built-in gender approach in its initial design. Since memory is a matter of feminist concern, and insofar as the CEV aims to become a vehicle for the transmission of the experiences of diverse women’s and sexual and gender minorities in the context of armed conflict in Colombia, the research seeks to examine its work, particularly regarding its conceptualization and implementation of intersectionality. Theorized by several strands of contemporary feminist theory, intersectionality proves to be a difficult concept to put in practice in empirical investigation. The work of the CEV provides an interesting opportunity to explore the feasibility of implementing intersectional approaches in historical clarification undertakings such as the one underway in Colombia, as much as the interpretation of social conflicts and political violence related to gender, race, class, and sexuality they allow. For this purpose, also theoretical and practical approaches to memory and gender at the CEV will be put under study.