Victim's Justice in the Aftermath of Political Violence: Why Do Countries Award Reparations?

Abstract

Governments often award reparations to victims of mass human rights violations (HRVs) committed during political violence. Although international law requires that governments compensate victims of such violations, some states award reparations while others do not. This paper provides the first global analysis of the determinants of state reparations awards to victims of HRVs. Analyses consider the effects of multiple factors on reparations awards, whether a country has used other types of transitional justice mechanisms, economic development, and regime type. Spatial and rare events logit analyses on a new database for all countries between 1969 and 2006 suggest that wealthy, democratic countries as well as governments that already employ other transitional justice mechanisms are more likely to actually pay reparations to victims than are other governments.