The notion of victim and the Colombian armed conflict: hermeneutics, citizenship and gender equity

The purpose of this article is to analyze, from three points of view, the limits of the concept of victim, implicit in Law 1448 of 2011, known as the Victims and Land Restitution Law. These three axes are presented as such: first, drawing upon political philosophy, an analysis of the concept of victim and its relation to violence from a hermeneutic perspective; second, the deepening of the notion of victim from the exercise of citizenship; and third, the interpretation of the limitations of the notion of victim from a gender equity perspective. The result: there is an exclusionary and inoperative concept of victim, which promotes segregation and limits both the real exercise of citizenship and the possibilities of advancing gender equity in Colombia. To sum up, a notion of victim that deepens power relations and recreates certain types of violence resulting from the Colombian armed conflict.