Managing Suffering in War-Affected Pluricultural Contexts: Reflections on the Assistance to Victims in Colombia

Abstract

Internal armed conflicts have generated plural and collective experiences of pain and suffering that challenge institutions. Based on the current consolidation of a public agenda that addresses the assistance to victims of the armed conflict provided in Colombia, and an ethnographic work with the indigenous Awa people of South-Western Colombia, we problematize the epistemes that inform two closely linked statutes that underlie the processes of transitional justice: law and science. The findings of the ethnographic research lay the foundations for an ethical-political reflection that suggests an action research agenda committed to recognizing the plurality of life within the structure of the longest conflict in America, and invites us to deconstruct notions, actions and institutions.

Keywords

• armed conflict
• epistemic gaps
• experts
• victim’s law
• suffering