The City of Women in Cartagena, Colombia, a human rights community of practice

During the 1990s and into the mid-2000s the conflict in Colombia led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people. Displacement has been used as a weapon in the conflict, yet there is complete impunity for the perpetrators (Ariza et al. 2009). Female heads of household who make up 28.1 percent of the national population comprise 46 percent of the displaced. Human Rights Watch (2005) has documented the many deleterious effects of forced displacement, among them alarming rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), increased incidences of domestic violence, lack of access to health care and sanitary living conditions, high rates of unemployment, and an under-representation of displaced children in school.