Colombian Government and FARC Achieve Legal Certainty for Peace Agreement

"This is a series of complementary institutional and democratic mechanisms, which together constitute an expeditious and safe route to comply" and to introduce the final peace agreement in the Colombian legal system, according to the joint statement released by the negotiators on Thursday.

The future peace agreement will be considered a "Special Agreement" and will become part of the so-called Colombian constitutional block on a temporary basis, explained Colombia's government head of negotiators Humberto de la Calle.

The "special agreement" is based on the Geneva Conventions and will be incorporated into domestic law through a legislative act, which will be treated as an ordinary law. It will be discussed in joint constitutional commissions in Congress and Senate, as well as in plenary sessions of the two chambers.

As agreed, the Government of Colombia will present the processing mechanism agreed on Thursday to the legislative chambers before May 18, including a proposal for an transitional article in the Constitution.

De la Calle explained that the peace agreement is a "political agreement", the result of a negotiation between a government and a guerrilla, so "it requires additional measures to give it strength and stability over time" as well as guarantees for compliance.

It was announced that once the agreement is signed, there will be a presidential statement before the Secretary General of United Nations so that the agency supports the peace agreement.

In addition to relying on the framework of international law, De la Calle said that among these legal measures to guarantee peace, there will be a countersignature mechanism, although this has not yet been finally agreed on yet.