Colombia: New Agreement on Domestic Public Law with Religious Entities

Abstract

On June 6, 2023, the President of the Republic issued Decree 922, through which the Internal Public Law Agreement No. 2 of 2023 with certain religious entities was approved. This marked a return to a legal instrument that had been inactive for over 25 years. The previous agreement, and until 2023, the only pact of this kind, had been signed in 1997 (Internal Public Law Agreement No. 1 of that year).

In the following lines, an attempt will be made, firstly, to describe the nature of these types of agreements and the normative evolution since the Statutory Law of Religious Freedom (Law 133 of 1994); secondly, a brief comparative analysis of the two current agreements (1997 and 2023) will be conducted, focusing on their main subjects: civil effects of marriage, religious education, religious assistance in military, prison, and hospital facilities, and places of worship. Some concluding reflections are proposed at the end.