CASE STUDIES
Restorative Justice
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Author of case study: Marcela Torres Molano
Geopolitical location of space:
Various regions of Colombia
Extant?
Yes
Architect:
Architect unknown
Start date: 2012
End date: ongoing
The Mobile Unit is a space for the initial stages of transitional justice. The unit is a space that provides services to different Colombian regions and territories such as information dissemination, legal orientation, receiving declarations of war crimes, and training and support of transitional justice processes.
Yes, the unit has been deployed in the initial stages of transitional justice in Colombia. It allows for the gathering of testimonies in regions of difficult access and provides legal orientation to victims, enabling their integration into the transitional justice system. Encounters between victims and perpetrators living in remote areas can be organised in different community spaces such as the public spaces where the mobile unit is usually located.
The unit is designed for mobility purposes. Spaces for individual consultation can take place inside the unit and in the outdoor extension adjacent to the unit. Meeting tables are placed outside the unit with enough distance between them to safeguard the privacy of the community members in attendance.
General population of urban and rural towns lacking in spaces for the attention of victims and/or transitional justice centres.
The unit occupies public space when visiting a town. As such, it is accessible to all members of the community it visits.
The Mobile Unit houses six office spaces and has a total area of 30 square metres when using the whole extension of the vehicle (this does not include the occupation of public space or the use of an inflatable structure in spaces adjacent to the parked unit). The space was designed to overcome geographic barriers and enable the decentralisation of transitional justice services. The main purpose of the space is to include victims from all regions of Colombia in an integrative and restorative justice process.
The unit includes work spaces inside the vehicle, as well as temporal tents and furniture to be located outdoors. The space can be arranged in different ways, adapted to different geographic environments and weather conditions. For instance, the tents are located away from the vehicle when the public space offers some protection from the elements, and they are located next to the vehicle when services are provided in a completely open or unprotected space.
The Mobile Unit started working in 2012, and has visited numerous territories across Colombia. By 2020 it had provided services to more than 122.000 victims of the conflict, including populations belonging to constitutionally protected ethnic groups (Indigenous and Rom people, Raizal communities of the Archipelago of San Andres and Providencia, and Afro-Colombian and Palenquero communities).
Among other functions, the unit is a space that provides information and legal guidance on the mechanisms of transitional justice, as well as training for individuals and public servants in truth telling, reparation, and non-repetition mechanisms. The training sessions include instruction on how to protect and participate in transitional justice processes, and briefing on the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the Colombian Truth Commission reports.
The Mobile Unit serves to decentralise services from the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the Truth Commission, and the Unit for the Search for Persons Presumed Disappeared (UBPD). Its customised mobile spaces allow communities from different regions, races, socio-economic classes, and backgrounds to access transitional justice services.
is an author, speaker, columnist, and podcaster in the fields of architecture and decorative arts. She is completing her MA in Art History at Concordia University, Montréal, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Marketing from John Molson School of Business. She studied Industrial Psychology in Los Angeles, California. Sicotte is the author of two published books on design (2015, 2018) published by Les Éditions Cardinal.
is a Colombian PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at Concordia University. She has a background in architectural design and community activism and holds a master’s degree in Building and Urban Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, England. Her interests focus on socially-engaged art, social movements, collaborative activism in post-conflict scenarios, collectively-produced art, and art produced in relation to the built environment.
is a PhD candidate in Humanities at Concordia University. His research focuses on spatial agency, social aesthetics, youth narratives, and graphic representations of urban memory. He has published on the relationship between children, play, and public space in Cartagena, Colombia. He has also worked as an editor on literary projects, including Territorio Fértil, which received the María Nelly Murillo Hinestroza award for Afro-Colombian literature.
is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Architectures of Spatial Justice (Tier 2) at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada. Her research interests include low-income housing and participatory design, civil protest and urban design, and campus landscapes and race. Her publications include the co-edited book, Orienting Istanbul (2010) and solo-authored book, Istanbul Open City (2018).
is an artist and a professor of Art History at Concordia University. Her work focuses on women and the history of the built environment, urban landscapes, research-creation, and oral history. She has published on the spatial history of the suffrage movement, public art, gardens, and the politics of urban change. In addition to her research on the spaces of restorative and transitional justice, she is leading an oral history project on the urban memories of diverse Montrealers.
is Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Concordia University, Montreal (Quebec, Canada). He is also the second co-director of Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. His latest publications explore listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. For instance, see ‘Facilitating voicing and listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. The Colombian scenario.’ In: De Nardi, S., Orange, H., et al. Routledge Handbook of Memoryscapes. Routledge: London. (2019), and his article ‘Not being able to speak is torture: performing listening to painful narratives’. International Journal of Transitional Justice, Special Issue Creative Approaches to Transitional Justice: Contributions of Arts and Culture. (March, 2020)
