Joint Communique #66

Joint Communiqué # 66

Havana, January 22, 2016

1. The delegations of the National Government and the FARC – EP hereby reiterate, before the national and international public opinion, our will and commitment to conclude these conversations, for which purpose we have made some decisions that facilitate the creation of a scenario for closure.

2. In the first place, we agreed to create an Executive Commission comprised by plenipotentiary members of the delegations, to which other advisors decided by each party may be added, in addition to the advisors responsible for each topic, in order to facilitate rapprochements at the strategic level, make the warranted decisions to streamline the drafting of agreements, and supervise the work of the delegations.

3. In second place, we agreed to establish a work plan with a timeline, to include both the remaining as well as the pending topics in regard to the agreements already reached, in order to enable the Executive Commission to organize all the pending work in a more effective manner, supervise its development and make the necessary decisions, including the creation of new working commissions to address pending topics.

4. In third place, we ask those responsible for the sub‐commissions that have been intensely working over more than one semester on topics of item 3 ‐ “End of the Conflict” ‐ of the Agenda of the General Agreement, to submit the conclusions of their work to the Executive Commission no later than Saturday, January 23.

5. We also ask the sub‐commission on gender to conclude the work it has been engaged in as promptly as possible, consisting of the revision of the agreements on items 1, 2 and 4 of the Agenda of the General Agreement with a gender‐based approach.

6. The foregoing decisions mean that the delegations will work uninterruptedly hereinafter, extending the permanence time of the Government delegation in Havana, and that the meeting days may be planned in such a way as to facilitate the exchange of specific proposals regarding the remaining topics, which are all interconnected.

For example, the delegations may work separately for several days, and convene the Executive Commission whenever it is necessary at the Convention Palace or at another venue.

7. The guarantor and accompanying countries will be informed on a regular basis about the works carried out by the Executive Commission and the working commissions.

8. We have agreed to ask the Office of the United Nations in Colombia and the Peace Dialogues’ Think Tank and Follow‐up Center of the National University (Centro de Pensamiento y Seguimiento a los Diálogos de Paz de la Universidad Nacional), to organize and coordinate all necessary matters in order to arrange a last forum, on this occasion regarding items 3 ‐ “End of the Conflict” ‐ and 6 ‐ “implementation, Verification and Ratification” ‐ of the Agenda of the General Agreement.

9. A communication and educational strategy will be jointly designed, directed to the Colombian society in order to disseminate the contents of the agreements reached up to date.

10. We hope that these first decisions of the year will enable us to conclude, based on the progress achieved thanks to the agreement to “Speed up in Havana and deescalate in Colombia” dated July 12 of last year, the Final Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict and the Construction of a Stable and Long‐lasting Peace.