Displacement Governance Mapping

Mapping record

Colombia Registro Único de Víctimas

Colombia · Social protection · Internal displacement · Administrative practice

The Registro Único de Víctimas is Colombia's official registry of people recognized as victims of the armed conflict. It functions as a gateway to humanitarian assistance, compensation, reparations, and public programmes administered through the Victims Unit and related institutions. As of the Unidad para las Víctimas' 2025 accountability report, the registry held over 10.2 million total registered victims, including 586,900 new inclusions during 2025 alone and, per the government's own accounting, 8.9 million people registered specifically for forced-displacement events as of December 2025 - a figure roughly 1.7 million higher than IDMC's independent estimate of the currently-displaced population, reflecting the RUV's cumulative design (registrants are not removed once they exit vulnerability).

Why it matters: Colombia is one of the clearest examples of registry-mediated displacement governance. Recognition creates a pathway to rights and services, but also exposes the gap between legal inclusion and fiscal/administrative delivery. The persistent, large gap between cumulative RUV registration and independently estimated current displacement is itself the analytical point: a registry built to preserve entitlement rather than to track present status will always overstate the live caseload, which is a design feature for rights protection but a complication for fiscal planning.