The Colombian government and Marxist rebel group FARC have jointly requested that the United Nations oversee their coming bilateral ceasefire.

While engaging in peace talks in Havana, negotiators representing both groups said they would like the UN to send a 12-month mission to watch over their attempts at peaceful coexistence.

As the BBC reports, the UN has not yet agreed to watch over the ceasefire. Colombia and FARC, who have been successfully having peace talks for three years now, hope to reach a final peace deal by March.

Both parties maintain that having the UN oversee their ceasefire is more of a formality than a necessity. A joint statement reads, "We have decided to ask the UN Security Council to create (a mission) of unarmed observers for a period of 12 months."

Humberto de la Calle, Colombia’s lead negotiator, has called the joint request for UN oversight an unequivocal demonstration of the desire to end the violence.

Since negotiations between the two groups started in 2012, FARC has announced several unilateral ceasefires, and Colombia has made an effort to scale down their military operations.

Colombia's war with FARC has resulted in 220,000 casualties.

FARC recently defended themselves against charges that women in their group have been forced to undergo abortions. As previously reported, the Colombian Attorney General's Office claims to have proof of forced abortions as part of FARC policy.

Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre said, "We have evidence to prove that forced abortion was a policy of the FARC that was based on forcing a female fighter to abort so as not to lose her as an instrument of war."

According to AFP, the Colombian government has recently released 16 FARC soldiers as a gesture of goodwill. President Juan Manuel Santos' administration pardoned the soldiers on Nov. 22, 2015.

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