Abstract

The Colombian Constitutional Court vis-à-vis the internal displacement issue. The thesis’ aim is to focus on the subject of internally displaced persons, IDPs, in Colombia. In particular, this paper seeks to underline the special role played by the Constitutional Court in defending the fundamental rights of IDPs, both as a judge and a public political actor. Colombia has the second highest number of IDPs in the world, making it a crucial social problem for human rights and humanitarian law. The Colombian constitutional judge declared the “estado de cosas inconstitucional” vis-à-vis the IDPs situation: this refers to the fact that internal displacement is a dramatic situation that needs the intervention of many public institutions to be solved. In this thesis I’ll state that Colombian Constitutional court became, de facto, a sort of public policies maker, in order to guarantee the rights to be effective. In particular, since 2004 it is becoming a real policy maker, editing a log of follow-up decisions to the T-025 sentence, including specific orders to the local and national authorities, to protect the IDPs’ rights. In particular, the Constitutional court stated a “special constitutional protection” for victims of displacement including children, women, afro Colombian community, indigenous communities, and disabled people. We consider Colombia a relevant case of study, with both a well-developed legal system of protection of IDPs and a sui generis Constitutional judge hyperactivisme that may be considered as a model for others countries dealing with an internal conflict, but relying on a firm institutional framework. Keywords: Internal displacement, Constitutional Court, Colombia, Internal armed conflict, acción de tutela legal action, human rights.