Feminist Politics and Combating Violence Against Women and Girls in Latin America: Lessons from Post-Peace Agreement Colombia

In post–peace agreement Colombia, the struggle against violence toward women and girls (VAWG) has become a key arena in which feminist movements and reformist actors in Congress confront persistent gendered inequalities. Building on regional debates about autonomous feminist organising and VAWG policy, this paper analyses legislative initiatives from 2016 to 2024 to examine how justice, citizenship, and equality are contested both within state institutions and through social mobilisations. By focusing on the post–peace agreement period, a context rarely analysed from a gender and feminist politics perspective, the study offers new insight into how Colombia’s transition has reshaped the terrain of gender-based violence policymaking. Drawing on interviews with legislators and feminist organisations, alongside an analysis of congressional bills, the paper highlights three interrelated dynamics: (1) patterns of VAWG lawmaking shaped by gender and party; (2) alliances and tensions between feminist movements and legislative actors mediated by informal institutional norms; and (3) embodied mobilisations, such as protests and symbolic acts, that pressure institutions and redefine public understandings of gender-based violence. Colombian scholarship shows how institutional responses to VAWG simultaneously reproduce patriarchal norms and create openings for feminist intervention. Situating Colombia within the broader Latin American context, the paper argues that contestations around VAWG legislation both mirror enduring regional inequalities and reveal the transformative potential of feminist politics in shaping post-conflict democracy.