Mr. Emilio José Archila Peñalosa:

I thank the committee and the ambassador very much. I am very grateful for this invitation to address the committee. I reaffirm what our ambassador just mentioned regarding the political willingness and commitment of President Ivan Duque to the full implementation of the agreements with the former FARC through our policy of peace with legality. I reiterate how grateful we are for the co-operation we received from Ireland. The Irish ambassador in Colombia is a wonderful woman. I feel very acquainted with her.

Obviously, we, the Government of Colombia and President Duque, appreciate the role of Eamon Gilmore, his experience, knowledge and generosity in sharing with us all that experience and knowledge. We feel Ireland's presence in the Security Council is a key element in the understanding at that level of the complexities involved in the implementation of a peace agreement. We think it is important to be aware of the magnitude of what has been accomplished and those challenges which remain. President Duque understands that the agreement was signed not by a government but by the Colombian state. The agreement was incorporated in our constitution and, therefore, part of the presidential mandate is to implement the agreement in good faith and to do it in accordance with all other political policies. That is the reason it was so important for us to issue our policy of peace with legality to enable the transparency that will allow Colombians and the international community to be aware of what we aim to accomplish during these first years of the implementation of the agreement. As the ambassador pointed out, this will be a long-lasting effort.

We have worked on every aspect of the implementation of the agreement and, in each of those elements, we have been committed by President Duque to ensure we take advantage of the 15-year period of implementation. An opportunity arises for Colombia in that regard, because many of the issues that must be addressed are ones that should have been addressed decades ago, with or without the agreement. However, those issues require a longer period of work and consistent advancement to enable what is involved to be achieved. Therefore, in every area of the peace with legality policy, it will be found that we have worked to have long-term planning in place. In addition, no money appeared when the agreement was signed and, therefore, it is necessary for us as a society to focus our resources so they match with the importance we give to the accomplishment of every aspect of the agreement.

This is true in respect of the political guarantees we have granted to the ex-combatants. The committee will be aware that in less than four years the Colombian state changed its constitution and Colombians who were participating in violence and fighting other Colombians are now in the congress.

During this period, we granted them security and guarantees so that they could participate in their local elections. We did that efficiently. We had the most peaceful local elections in Colombia of the past 60 years. Many ex-FARC members participated and are now on their local councils as mayors or governors because people voted for them. We worked on granting the legal guarantees that changed our constitution. Now, all of the institutions of transitional justice are working, fully financed and producing results.

At the core of our efforts are the victims. We work in line with what was agreed in the agreement. It was believed that victim law needed to be renewed so that we would have another ten years to compensate the victims. This was done after listening to the victims and learning their expectations. We went to their representatives and took their doubts and expectations to the Congress of Colombia. Now we have a new law.

We have worked on trying to incorporate the ex-combatants, of whom there are a little more than 13,000. We have been able to support them. This was illustrated in our most recent survey of them, which showed that more than 75% viewed their future with optimism. That is far above the level of optimism in the rest of Colombia and probably far above the level of optimism in Ireland.

We understand that working to stabilise the 170 municipalities that were more affected by violence and poverty is crucial. Therefore, we have the development programmes with a territorial approach, PDETs. These are long-term plans with a territorial emphasis grouping the 170 municipalities into 16 subregions. We have not only produced long-term planning, but we have also focused significant resources compared with the investments that these municipalities received over the past 200 years. We will leave this planning in place until it reaches the point of providing no returns.

We understand that, for Colombia, coca crops are a severe menace and that drug trafficking is the source of many of our country's problems. We have not only maintained the voluntary substitution programme that we received, but we have also created another three programmes, allowing us to move a little more than 100,000 families from growing coca to substitute crops. That is 400,000 Colombians who are no longer involved in an illegal business that produces so much violence and pain.

We have addressed the chapter on rural development and rural reform through productive factors, infrastructure, social development and the environment. We have done all of this with an emphasis on the cross-cutting issues of women, gender and ethnicity. We have been able to implement the most ambitious and successful demining programme. We have addressed every aspect, implemented long-term planning and produced results.

Regarding reincorporation, we have been able to take 98% of ex-combatants into the health system and 98% of ex-combatants are within the financial system. They are in our national pension system. If we count how many of them are involved in a productive project that has been implemented or in are long-term jobs, it amounts to more than 50%. More than 85% of them have attended the type of education that meets their expectations. We have included additional guarantees in respect of, for example, housing. Housing was not foreseen in the agreements, but President Duque understands that we need to work on their housing. We have delivered housing solutions to many of them and we have a plan to ensure that the 13,000 are covered.

Regarding the PDETs for the 170 municipalities that were more affected by violence and poverty, we are investing approximately 5 billion Colombian pesos in those municipalities. This is ten times the budget of the National Roads Institute, INVÍAS, the entity that provides for arterial roads in Colombia. We have supported the transitional jurisdiction by not only not interfering with its work, but by providing the financial support it needed. In line with that, this committee will be aware that we approached the UN Security Council and asked that the UN accompany Colombia in overseeing the completion of the sentences that should start being awarded this year to people who were involved in that violence.

I am glad to be attending this meeting, although I am sorry that it is not in person. I enjoyed my visit to Ireland and I would prefer to be there for this meeting. I hope that a visit can be arranged in the near future. If there are specific questions, I will be more than glad to answer them.