Symbols, Communicative Citizenship Actions and the Claiming of Human Rights from a Transnational Perspective: The Case of the Social Movement of Victims of Eastern Antioquia, Colombia

In this paper I would like to present the experience of two social movements of victims of Eastern Antioquia (Colombia – South America) that have been developing different types of communicative citizenship actions and symbols in order to do political activism in regional public spheres and claim human rights from a transnational perspective in the midst of the Colombian armed conflict. Specifically, I will focus on the experience of the Association of Victims of Granada Town (ASOVIDA) and The Provincial Association of Victims to Citizens (APROVIACI), and how these two association of victims have been implementing, transferring and adapting in their communicative citizenship actions different symbols and forms of political action having as a reference other victims’ groups of the world such as Women in Black (Serbia), Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Argentina) and May our Daughters Return Home, Civil Association (Mexico).

 My two principal arguments in this paper are: first, these two Colombian experiences (ASOVIDA and APROVIACI) are successful examples of how it is possible to transfer, adapt and implement different types of political actions and symbols from other parts of the world in order to improve social and politic activism in particular contexts. My second principal argument is that the concept of communicative citizenship represents the instrumentalization of a new dimension of citizenship where communicative action is at the centre of the social dynamic, and one of its primary purposes is to understand the different socio-communicative manifestations, actions, strategies, practices and tactics associated with the contemporary struggle for recognition, meaning and significance for different actors in public spheres. The analysis in this paper is based on results of a narrative analysis of 48 interviews that I conducted with different members of ASOVIDA and APROVIACI in October and November of 2012 as part of my doctoral research fieldwork.