Naming and Shaming Victims: The Semantics of Victimhood

Abstract

This article examines how victimhood is constructed on a daily basis in postconflict Peru. It seeks to advance the empirical study of the politics of victimhood and analyzes how external modes of identification of Peruvian victim-survivors influence the selfidentification processes and the collective action strategies of organized victimsurvivors. The article shows that the uses of the notion of victimhood influence the degree to which victim-survivors receive legal, political and social recognition, as well as the degree to which their role as active citizens with an ability to vocalize and represent their claims is accepted. The overall argument is that deconstructing the side effects of transitional justice interventions on relationships between social organizations is important for enhancing understanding of the possibilities and constraints of civil society organizations to raise awareness regarding human rights violations. KEYWORDS: semantics of victimhood, politics of victimhood, victim organizations, vernacularization, Peru