Hobeth is a researcher and human rights activist from Colombia. He is currently a PhD Candidate in Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where his research focuses on rural elites and their role in the reproduction of socioeconomic inequalities. Hobeth’s broader research and activist interests include social class, elites, land inequalities, human rights, conflict/peace, and transitional justice.
He is also currently a researcher in the ‘Peace and Gender (In)equality: Lessons from the Colombian Peace Agreement of 2016’ – project, which has been funded by AFSEE’s Atlantic Equity Challenge.
Hobeth has served as Senior Research Officer at the School of Law of the University of Essex (UK), where he worked for the Essex Transitional Justice Network (ETJN). Before joining the ETJN, he worked as a principal researcher in transitional justice at the Center for the Study of Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia), a human rights NGO based in Bogotá.
He began his professional career as a researcher and legal adviser on indigenous peoples’ rights and their relationship with the Colombian penitentiary system. This work later expanded to encompass topics such as victims’ rights (including forced displacement, land restitution and reparations), land issues (such as property concentration, land control, socio-territorial conflicts and agrarian law) and transitional justice.
Hobeth is a member of the Research Committee on Sociology of Law (RCSL) and part of the Essex Transitional Justice Network (ETJN). His most recent publications include a co-authored article published at the Journal of Human Rights Practice on sanctions in the Colombia Transitional Justice system (2022, with C. Sandoval and M. Cruz-Rodríguez) and a co-authored policy paper about the budget invested in recent peace policies in Colombia (2022, with A. Rodríguez).
He holds a law degree from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL), an MA in Socio-legal studies from the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL), and an MSc in Inequalities and Social Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Curiosity, or having the ability to look at things differently and therefore to not accept them as immutable, is an essential value. I always want to learn new things, observe new evidence, integrate different perspectives, and try alternative paths. If you are curious enough, you may find a way. Eventually, things can and will change.Hobeth Martínez Carrillo