Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

Mariana Ospina Infante

Theory of conflict
09/10/2018

Protecting civilians in civil war: The institution of the ATCC in Colombia

Critical Review

In the article, Protect civilians in the civil war: the institution of the ATCC in Colombia by Oliver
Kaplan, has an analysis on the behavior of the Association of Campesino Workers Del Carare
created in 1987, to fight against the violations of human rights by the armed groups in Colombia,
analyzing how this was developed and what mechanisms are used to the protection of civilians in
civil war . Through reading can understand that it is an article in which the author had to investigate
thoroughly the topic to have reliable sources, use as evidence different points of views of those
who were part of the armed conflict as some registered documents.

The evidence that Kaplan uses helps to be a credible and trustworthy source since he himself
affirms that he uses was such as secondary interviews that were part of this armed conflict and
inhabitants from Bogotá, Colombia,He does tris, with the purpose of making a deep study of this
type of groups that defend civilians in wars, using a quantitative and qualitative method reflected
in graphics supported by the Colombian ATCC, these are effective for the sustenance since it
matches what the author wants to support, demonstrating how some external factors can alter the
protection of civilians and their behavior. For example he use truth and false accusation that
happen during the conflict making y a highlight that there exist so e in-corrected data from this
context. affirming this idea.

An empirical framework and methods for measurement, were developed to study this form
of ‘peacebuilding’ in the midst of conflict. The dataset of threat conciliations helped trace
the ATCC process and even provided quantification of how the armed conflict and
concomitant threats unfolded and were dealt with.(Kaplan,2013). pp. 365.
Finally, after reading this article, I noticed that my knowledge increased in the problematic of
protecting civilians in war and how it persists now a days, it is important to know about it, to be
able to apply it in the future and in other conflicts to protect their civilians. This was an
interesting article that had a reach content in the ATCC, letting the reader have a different
perspective about this problematic.

References
Kaplan, Oliver (2013). “Protecting civilians in civil war: The institution of the ATCC in
Colombia”, Journal of Peace Research, 50(3) p. 351-367.