Recipients Versus Participants: Politics of Aid and Victim Representation in Transitional Justice Practices in Peru

Abstract

This article examines how features of international development cooperation are reproduced within international networks of stakeholders in transitional justice (TJ) processes aimed at seeking redress for victims of mass atrocities. To answer this question, the authors analyze interactions between survivors of the Peruvian internal armed conflict and (inter)national development and human rights NGOs involved in the TJ process. The article identifies four features of international development cooperation and scrutinizes the respective ways in which they challenge the reciprocal linkages between NGOs and victim-groups in post-conflict settings: asymmetrical relationships, ephemeral agenda-setting processes, paternalism, and socio-geographical concentration of development interventions. We show how these four features influence representations of victimhood as well as the extent to which survivors can formulate their demands and priorities.