Juan David is a political scientist who has worked for ten years to support the implementation of two of the main Peace Accords in the history of Colombia (Chamber of Justice & Peace, Superior Court of Bogotá, and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace). In his role as an advisor to judges and prosecutors, he has helped to clarify the truth about the commission of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Colombia.
Currently, he is fostering a building capacity programme with women, poor peasants, and LGBTQ+ and indigenous communities to bolster the civilian agency in conflict-prone and high-risk areas. Coupled with the bottom-up peacebuilding approach, Juan David has been leading a strategy to change the strong militaristic orientation of the protection policy for human rights defenders and social leaders in Colombia. For example, he contributed to the development of an early warning system and the design of a digital literacy plan that have helped improve the security situation for hundreds of vulnerable groups living in contexts of chronic violence.
Juan David has also been a lecturer at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana for almost 10 years. His academic research has focused on exploring the relationship between democracy, civil wars, and inequalities. Currently, he is writing a book with Professor Jenny Pearce about the Colombian elites. The aim of this research is to analyse how the anthropological and sociological profile of the elites and the sources of their thinking have hindered the adoption of redistributive and inclusive reforms in Colombia, which has led to this country being one of the most unequal worldwide and the one with the longest internal armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere.
Juan David holds a master's degree in Political Studies from the National University of Colombia.
The experience that I had in the Special Jurisdiction for Peace allowed me to see the flip side of public policy on the protection of human rights defenders in Colombia, which mostly has been adopted with a militaristic/policing bias. Challenging the conventional wisdom, collaborations with more than 150 grassroots groups have revealed the benefits of strengthening civilian capacities to protect them in conflict-prone zones. Accordingly, I learned that small changes from below can lead to great transformations.Juan David Velasco Montoya