The implementation of the Total Peace policy (TPP) in Colombia faces regulatory, institutional, and territorial challenges that limit its effectiveness. These reports reveal that the lack of an integrated regulatory framework weakens negotiation processes, while in some regions, the framework for dialogues, among other factors, is deepening criminal governance. Local governance structures remain largely excluded from the decision-making process, reducing the policy’s impact at the local level.

These conclusions come from research conducted by experts from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), the Conflict Responses Foundation (CORE), and the Criminal Justice and Policy Lab (LJPC), with the technical and financial support of the Serious Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Evidence (SOC ACE) research program at the University of Birmingham. The reports provide an in-depth analysis of the Total Peace policy’s legal foundation and its effects on security and governance across key conflict regions in Colombia.

The first report, “Institutional Architecture of Total Peace: A Normative Review Studied in Practice”, by Juanita Durán, examines how the lack of an integrated legal framework is impeding the government’s ability to reach sustainable agreements. It highlights gaps in judicial transition mechanisms that make peace negotiations difficult to finalize.

The second report, “Total Peace Policy: Between Light and Shadow”, by Kyle Johnson, Felipe Botero, Mariana Botero, Andrés Aponte, and Lina Asprilla, investigates the course of negotiations with armed groups in Buenaventura, Arauca and Tumaco in the framework of the implementation of the policy. In some cases, the negotiations are favoring the consolidation of power by criminal organizations.

The Briefing Note Negotiating with Criminal Groups: Colombia’s “Total Peace” summarises lessons from the TPP for negotiating with criminal groups found in research papers. Drawing on fieldwork in Buenaventura, Arauca and Tumaco the note focuses on two critical issues that emerge in contexts where rebel and criminal governance coexist with formal institutions: the institutional context of the policy; and its implementation at the local level so far.

The Briefing Note Total Peace” in Colombia: Lessons for Negotiating with Organised Crime Groups and Promoting Peacebuilding  provides important lessons on the need to understand the evolving nature of violence; the importance of coordinating between local and national authorities; appropriation of the concept of “hybrid political orders”; and the importance of timing and sequencing in negotiations.

The research papers, with their respective briefing notes, intends to spark discussions on the obstacles to implementing Total Peace and offers recommendations to strengthen negotiation strategies and improve local governance integration.