The Expansion of Rights of Crime Victims in the Context of the 1991 Constitution

This chapter outlines key elements of Colombian history to locate debates over rights of victims in the history of violence and human rights activism. This chapter identifies the main factors that may explain how the figure of the victim came to play a prominent role in legal and political debates on criminal justice in the 1990s and early 2000s. These include: i) the armed conflict and the high number of victims of human rights violations, ii) the increasing human rights activism, iii) the growing acceptance of human rights, iv) the 1991 Constitution, and v) the progressive jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court. The first section of this chapter explores the history of the 1991 Constitution. The second section describes the mixed or “quasi-accusatorial” criminal justice system adopted in the 1991 criminal justice reform. This section also analyzes the figure of the civil party (partie civile) that allowed victims to participate in criminal proceedings as civil actors to seek compensation, as in many civil law jurisdictions. The final section examines the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court on victims’ rights and the civil party, emphasizing the expansion of the role and rights of victims in criminal proceedings in 2002. Since victims’ rights in international law were a crucial factor in the development of this doctrine by the Constitutional Court, this section includes a brief review of relevant international instruments and jurisprudence.