Peru

Wartime sexual violence is rooted in preconflict inequalities and also perpetuates peacetime violence, as the case of Peru shows. Peru can begin to break this cycle of violence by treating rape in war as a crime against humanity.

Gender and Peacebuilding Center Director, Kathleen Kuehnast, discusses USIP's focus on women's equality in 2011 and looks ahead at the gender projects USIP will work on in 2012.

Private oil companies invested $800 million in Peru in 2009 alone, and another $1 billion is planned for investments in natural gas developments between 2010-2013, as Peru is rapidly on its way to becoming Latin America’s first exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). New oil and gas revenues have contributed to Peru’s steady economic growth. But growing opposition from indigenous groups to these new hydrocarbons projects is polarizing Peru’s already highly unequal society and creating dangerously conflictive situations.

Peru’s social conflicts have been growing in tandem with its economy in the past few years. By giving some of the region’s most attractive hydrocarbons investment incentives, Peru has succeeded in attracting dozens of new foreign oil companies, mainly for development in the largely unexplored Amazon jungle.

After nearly six decades of sporadic warfare over a relatively small stretch of disputed border, Ecuador and Peru signed an accord on October 26, 1998, that provides a definitive settlement of the remaining issues in their ongoing border conflict. The accord may not spell the end to future territorial disputes in the region, but it is historic in that it involves many actors working over many decades to achieve a settlement to a long-standing dispute.

Commission of Inquiry: Commission of Inquiry to Investigate the Massacre of Prisoners
Duration:  1986 - 1988
Charter: Not available
Commissioners: 13
Report: Public minority report

Truth Commission: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Duration:  2001 - 2003
Charter: Supreme Decree No. 065-2001-PCM
Commissioners: 12
Report: Public report