The Universidad Pedagógica together with the Institute for Development and Peace Studies Foundation (Indepaz), the Ateneo International Program for Advocacy on Human Rights, Memory, and Truth (Ateneo) and the Centro de Memoria Paz y Reconciliación de Bogotá (CMPR) bet on the creation and development of the international diploma course Truth and Peacebuilding “Appropriation of the Report of the Truth Commission for Colombia outside Colombia”.
The purpose of this diploma course is the appropriation and dissemination of the legacy of the Final Report of the Truth Commission, focusing on the findings and recommendations made by the Colombian community living abroad and by people in other countries who work with this population.
This may be carried out through participation in various virtual educational scenarios, which encourage dialogues of knowledge, political, reflective, and plural debate, as an option to transmit and share the experience of exile, forced migration outside Colombia, and to contribute to truth and peace building.
The process of organizing this diploma course took 10 months, with 700 students enrolled, 300 of whom will take the course, so the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional is committed to its development, but also to the possibility of replicating it, since the large-scale objective is for state universities to become territories of peace. It is worth noting that during this process the UPN was represented by teams from the Vice Rectory for University Management, the Centro de Educación para la Paz, la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (CEPAZ – UPN) and the Centro de Innovación, Desarrollo Educativo y Tecnológico de la Universidad Pedagógica Nacional de Colombia (Center for Innovation, Educational and Technological Development of the National Pedagogical University of Colombia) (Cinndet).
The inaugural session of this space was held on October 14 in a virtual meeting with the participation of Mireya González Lara, Vice-Chancellor of University Management of the Casa Grande de la Pedagogía, who defined the diploma course as the product of an important effort and the meeting of the commitment of many organizations and actors. She also emphasized that this diploma course challenges, challenges, and contributes to build us as humanity.
González added that as a university community, the UPN is committed as a legatee of the Comisión de la Verdad (Truth Commission’s) report by being a trainer of teachers in Colombia, as it is the bearer of a fundamental knowledge to achieve non-repetition, which is pedagogy, which allows to generate a link and recognize the other, from diversity.
During the event, the priest Francisco of Roux, who directed the Comisión de la Verdad (Truth Commission), greeted the Colombians who were forced to leave the country and celebrated the fact that they are present in this diploma course, which for him goes beyond geographical limits and incorporates the Colombia that was exiled by violence.
Additionally, he highlighted the decision to put the truth of the victims in the foreground, to build hope and future from a painful and uncomfortable truth, in order to build a serious, transparent and honest understanding, which leads to understand what happened to us as a society and how we will build together the country we deserve.