Alexandra Hernandez is a lawyer, specialised in Administrative Law and Peace Counsellor at the Santiago de Cali Municipality.
AOAV: Can you please explain your work?
Alexandra Hernandez: The ‘Asesoría de Paz’ of the Cali municipality has three basic functions:
One is of social nature, through which we manage the DPS (Department for Social Prosperity) against extreme poverty. The other is everything to do with justice and peace: coexistence, human rights and providing juridical support.
Lastly, I am the technical secretary for the transitional justice committee and the main discussion is to promote everything related to human rights and internal armed conflict victims.
Under this context I manage the U.A.U. building in Cali, which works very well and is well articulated. We are working in agreement with the attorney and offer institutional support and everything related to victims’ rights.
We monitor all cases in the different categories established by the Act 14/48 (Victims Act) and assist the victims as guaranteed by this act. We also manage a short-term living space where 50 people are temporarily lodged, and we give the psychosocial assistance according to each case.
Cali is the first city receiving victims of the armed conflict in South Colombia. We have actually registered the number of forced displaced declared victims that amounts to approximately 135,000.
We are very concerned with the fact that the families that come to Cali as victims deepen their condition of victims when they establish themselves in places with high rates of crime. We therefore manage different projects with these families to bring the institutional offer in terms of victim assistance closer to them, and to counteract the violence that they have to face so their social bonds are not broken and their welfare is as secured as possible despite the difficult context.
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