On October 18, 2012, the Negotiations Table was installed, thus initiating the public phase of the process to be carried out in Havana, with the objective of reaching agreements on the six points of the agenda. On August 24, 2016, a first Final Agreement was reached, which was signed in Cartagena a month later.
This phase would be formally extended from November 19, 2012 until the first Final Agreement was consolidated on August 24, 2016. During that time, the talks took place over 51 sessions that were led by the plenipotentiary delegates of the Government and the FARC-EP. These sessions also involved parallel activities in subcommittees that addressed subjects like the end of the conflict and a gendered perspective, or that built trust on issues like humanitarian demining, early acts of acknowledging responsibility, crop substitution, persons deprived of liberty, pedagogy, etc.
During the public phase, the parties in Havana received visits from five victims’ delegations, from experts in various fields, from social organizations, from political leaders, from international delegates, and from other third parties who helped to contextualize, deepen and develop proposals for the various subjects on the agenda. While the conversations were advancing in Cuba, in Colombia, where the armed conflict continued (despite some de-escalation measures), various mechanisms for citizen participation that the Table had developed began operating (thematic public forums, virtual and physical mechanisms for submitting proposals to the Table, etc.).
