Land policy for populations displaced in 2001-2011: from protection to restitution

Abstract

The political and legal process that concluded with the inclusion of a chapter on land restitution in law of 1448, known as the victims’ law, has traveled a long and complex path, and has undergone a major shift, moving from the original idea of protection to restitution. In this paper we propose three objectives: to rebuild the institutional trajectory of the Bill for the Protection of Land and Property of the displaced population, as a particular case within the institutions that later gave rise to the restitution policy; second, to show the technical advances that made this evolution from the idea of protection to restitution possible; and lastly, we analyze the governmental logic that guided the process. All this is analyzed based on a conceptual framework of sociology and political anthropology, showing the interaction between different actors and interests, involving government dynamics that surpass the state (this first study is based on the files and documents produced and published by the project).