Peace Sign: La Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó

Abstract

The Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó (Peace Community) is a group of peasant farmer settlements in Northern Colombia who have used signage to unilaterally declare neutrality in the Colombian armed conflict. This chapter looks at the signs displayed by the Community as objects of international law and discusses the implications for the development and localization of international law. The chapter explores how the Community has adopted concepts of international law to carve out a space to resist the violence that surrounds them. The chapter also describes how the signs detail informal internal law, with adorned handwritten internal Community rules, and looks at the aspirations and principles conveyed by the signs’ design.