Collective Reparations Research Articles

The effect of complex posttraumatic stress and poverty on quality of life among adult survivors of childhood institutional maltreatment: evidence from survivors of the 'Hyeongje Welfare Institution' in South Korea.

Background: Childhood institutional maltreatment (IM) is associated with both complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CTPSD) and poverty in adulthood life, each of which may impact an individual's quality of life (QoL). To find implications for clinical practice and policy making for adult survivors with childhood IM experiences, it is necessary to conduct research examining their current QoL and identifying related factors.Objective: By applying the model of the conservation of resources theory, we focused on how adulthood QoL can be indicated by childhood IM as well as the life outcomes of IM such as additional lifetime trauma, CPTSD, and poverty.Methods: In a cross-sectional study, self-report data were collected from 127 adults who were survivors of the 'Hyeongje' childhood IM in South Korea. We conducted regression analyses of childhood IM experiences, trauma experiences after escape from the institution, current CPTSD symptoms, and current poverty experiences on current QoL.Results: The duration of placement at the 'Hyeongje' (β = .24, p = .009) was associated with trauma experiences after escape from the institution. Trauma experiences after escape from the institution (β = .25, p = .007) were associated with CPTSD symptoms. CPTSD symptoms (β = .26, p = .005) were associated with poverty, and both CPTSD symptoms (β = -.52, p < .001) and poverty (β = -.26, p = .003) were negatively associated with current QoL.Conclusions: Prolonged childhood IM brings about loss spirals by increasing an individual's exposure to experiences of further cumulative trauma, CPTSD, and poverty. There is a need for due diligence-based policy making and public support from the government to help create upward spirals for QoL. This may include the imminent detection and rescue of children as well as providing a safe environment, offering multidisciplinary interventions including evidence-based treatment for CPTSD, and considering economic support including collective reparations.

Collective reparations in Colombia: a tool for the non-repetition of violations?

Collective reparations in Colombia: a tool for the non-repetition of violations?

The Ultimate Victim of Genocide and the Question of Collective Reparations

Abstract This article examines the options available for redressing collective victimhood, specifically in relation to genocide. First, it analyses how the question of reparations was addressed during the drafting of the Genocide Convention. Then, it focuses on the framework of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and explores the types of victims the icc can acknowledge and provide remedies for under its Statute and Rules of Procedure and Evidence. Finally, the article concludes by proposing an alternative approach to secure appropriate redress for the violation of the collective right to exist belonging to the ultimate victim of genocide, the group as such.

Disruptive Reparations? Tunisia's Victim Regions and the Collective Reparations Dilemma in Transitional Societies

In the past decade, an encompassing transitional justice process has been developed in Tunisia, which interacts with various other policy domains, including that of development. This article foregrounds three important interrelated innovations of Tunisia's transitional justice process: The explicit attention to economic crimes and violations of economic, social, and cultural rights; the introduction of the notion of victim regions; and the conceptualization of collective reparation programs. I discuss these innovations in light of the ongoing debate about the collective reparations dilemma in transitional societies, and notably about the ideal relation between (collective) reparation programs and development. The article then introduces the notion of disruptive reparations to theorize this relation in a way that foregrounds the need to consider and disrupt the political, socio-economic, and epistemic structures that facilitated the initial harm. This exercise acknowledges the specificity of various policy domains, and approaches them in a way that is fundamentally rooted in victims’ justice needs.

Collective Justice: Ex-Combatants and Community Reparations in Colombia

Abstract In conflicts involving non-state armed groups, individualized approaches to transitional justice and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration face significant shortcomings for both victims and ex-combatants. Yet, both transitional justice and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration have had trouble interrogating the tensions between individualized and collective approaches, focusing more on normative debates over the proper balance than on the actual experiences of communities in transition. This paper seeks to advance this debate through empirical research on the local experience of justice and coexistence amid civilian and ex-combatant communities in Colombia. The authors utilized a unique dataset of ‘everyday’ community-based indicators of coexistence and justice in eight civilian and ex-combatant communities in rural Colombia. Using the country’s web of reparations mechanisms, the paper draws a distinction between ‘state-led’ and ‘community-led’ collective justice and proposes that the latter can speak to both civilian and ex-combatant communities’ priorities and lived experiences—and, ultimately, provide a pathway to coexistence. This would stand in contrast to the Colombian state’s current collective reparations projects by speaking directly to the concerns and priorities of both civilian and ex-combatant communities: on the civilian side, to be compensated directly by those who committed acts of violence; and on the ex-combatant side, to be recognized and accepted as a community. Such a community-led model integrating transitional justice and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration processes would serve as a pragmatic middle ground between the individual and state-led collective approaches that dominate transitional justice.

Transitional justice from the margins: Collective reparations and Tunisia's Truth and Dignity Commission

The Tunisian revolution of 2011 moved from socio-economic to political concerns, and from the margins and periphery of the South and West of the country to the centre, Tunis, driven by the slogan of “jobs, dignity and freedom”. The goal of this article is to understand the potential of using the spatially informed concept of marginalisation to reimagine transitional justice, using the “victim zone” as a case study. The Truth and Dignity Commission's founding legislation tasked it with identifying victim zones that had “suffered systematic marginalisation or exclusion” and proposing reparation for structural violations suffered. Empirical data collected from two disadvantaged regions of Tunisia are used to provide a bottom-up, victim-centred, look at structural and economic violence. The IVD has largely failed to-date to deliver on its promise in relation to collective reparations, but a combination of theory and empirical data provides a springboard for a discussion of how the margins could unsettle current transitional justice practice, both normatively and practically. The article concludes by outlining an unfinished business agenda for Tunisia and implications for future transitional justice. Specifically, it argues for a transitional justice from the margins that focuses on space as well as time, collectives as well as individuals, a normative plurality rather than a single universalised global framework, decentralised agency rather than centralised institutional primacy, and a new social contract (forms of participation and recognition) rather than the continuity of elite bargains.

Rethinking the issue of reparations for Black Americans.

The differential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities of color in the United States along with the civil unrest taking place in 2020 in response to the killing of unarmed Black men and women by the police have increased awareness of the structural racism pervading US society. These developments have reraised the issue of reparations for Black Americans, usually proposed in the context of providing financial compensation for the injustices of slavery to the descendants of those who were enslaved. This paper will discuss the systematic racial inequality and structural racism in US society that have significantly disadvantaged racial and ethnic minorities while giving advantages to white Americans, which most recently have resulted in significantly higher mortality and morbidity among Black, Hispanic, and Native Americans during the pandemic. The paper will conceptualize reparations within the context of theories of reparative justice. It will also consider whether reparations are owed, and if so, by whom, to whom, and in what form. The final section will offer a proposal for collective reparations to the Black community and other people of color.

Trapped between Promise and Reality in Colombia's Victims' Law: Reflections on Reparations, Development and Social Justice

Colombia's 2011 Victims' Law aims to return land to millions of internally displaced people and assist survivors in the difficult process of rebuilding their lives through individual and collective reparations. This article analyses the expectations, experiences and needs of two campesino communities involved in this process. Drawing on nine months of fieldwork using ethnographic and participatory visual methods, the article critically engages with transitional justice theory on transformative reparations, and identifies key lessons for the Colombian government to make the Victims' Law live up to its promise of transforming survivors' lives and restoring their trust in the state.

Commencement of Cultural Destruction Reparations Orders in Criminal Warfare: Precedence of the ICC Al Faqi Al Mahdi Judgment

This case note surveys the Reparations Order in the case of Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi issued on August 17, 2017, in which the International Criminal Court (“Chamber”) pioneered legal ground by holding a war criminal financially liable for the destruction of cultural property. For the first time, the Chamber tasked itself with calculating reparations owed to community members whose cultural and religious monuments were systematically destroyed by the Islamist militant in Timbuktu, Mali. The final amount awarded, 2.7 million euros, represented both collective and individual reparations owed to victims for the demolition of “historic and religious buildings, consequential economic loss, and moral harm.” Because neither liability nor victim reparation was ever previously contemplated for cultural destruction war crimes at the international level, the Chamber’s reasoning and final calculation will undoubtedly serve as precedent in subsequent cases. This paper begins by providing both a factual and legal foundation for the groundbreaking decision as well as a basic overview of the legal requirements for a Reparations Order. It then transitions to focus more specifically on the reparations issued against Al Mahdi and provides a detailed legal analysis on the impact of relevant victims, modalities of reparations, mitigating factors, and method of calculations. Finally, this case note ends with a brief practical analysis and evaluation of implications.

Collective Reparations and the Limitations of International Criminal Justice to Respond to Mass Atrocity

Crimes under international criminal law (icl) are complex and are necessarily committed by complex nets of perpetrators with different degrees of responsibility. Claims have been raised against icl as a mechanism overly focused on the legal fiction of an individual perpetrator, obscuring the true collective dimension of the crimes. Despite these criticisms, icl has incorporated a mechanism to address this collective dimension, at least on the side of the victims: collective reparations. However, the emerging use of collective reparations faces important challenges in an avenue based on an individual-perpetrator logic. Here, I identify current difficulties in the early practice of collective reparations in international criminal justice. These difficulties relate mainly with procedural issues and the role of the ‘adjunct mechanisms’ such as the Trust Fund for Victims (tfv). I submit that these difficulties reflect the inherent tensions present in the asymmetrical treatment of the collective dimension of the crimes

Recibir la reparación. Aproximación a dos organizaciones de desplazados del conflicto armado interno en Lima y su acceso a reparaciones colectivas

This article illustrates the characteristics of two Lima-based organizations of persons displaced by the internal armed conflict in Peru (1980-2000), and the way in which these characteristics create opportunities and obstacles for access to the Program of Collective Reparations —a key element of the Peruvian reparations policy—. This program provides funding to a collective beneficiary for institutional strengthening or economic entrepreneurship.Based on bibliographic review, interviews with members of these organizations as well as ethnographic field work, I show that the characteristics of each displaced persons’ organization together with the type of collective project they choose create scenarios of challenges and possibilities which pose difficulties to these groups, requiring collective action capacities which they do not necessarily have. This results in a de facto situation that undermines their right to reparation. Therefore, I argue the importance not only of analizing the reparations offer and its quality, but also the characteristics of the demand, that is, of the beneficiary groups of displaced persons and their internal interactions, and how these factors shape access to reparations.

Transitional Justice and Reparations: Remedying the Past?

Reparations are often considered victim-centred transitional justice measures. While they have their basis in private law notions of corrective justice and human rights principles of remedy, politics and economic resources often shape reparations in times of transition. Reparations in transitional justice often take time and require revisiting as society becomes conscious of previously hidden or marginalised victims. Added to this is the challenge of delimiting who are eligible, contested victimhood, and when does the transition end. This raises questions of whether reparations are appropriate for historical violations caused by colonial governments or slavery. The chapter examines individual and collective reparations, apportionment amongst family members, reparation processes and mechanisms, as well as evidential and financial concerns. Although public resources may be limited in provided full compensatory awards to all victims, small sums or pensions along with public acknowledgement of victims’ suffering, wrongfulness of the perpetrators and institutions’ acts, along with guarantees of non-repetition can be ‘good enough’. This chapter argues that despite the political wrangling of reparations during transition, the right to reparations in international law reflects the necessity of states delivering reparations to victims of serious violations.

Did the ICC Fail Child Victims in the Lubanga Reparations Order?

In 2012, the International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for enlisting, conscripting and using child soldiers during the Ituri conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Two and a half years later, the Appeals Chamber of the Court issued an amended reparations order against Lubanga. This paper seeks to examine whether the amended order for reparations and the draft implementation plan for reparations in the Lubanga case failed child soldier victims by only ordering collective reparations instead of individual reparations. This article argues that despite the near impossible task at hand, which involved the diluting of victims’ individual reparations requests, the ICC and TFV have come up with as good a reparations plan as possible, balancing individual victims’ needs and requests with larger, community considerations.

Education as Rehabilitation for Human Rights Violations

Reparations for human rights violations in the form of rehabilitation can include social services such as education. This can be a particularly appropriate form of reparation for victims who have experienced abuses that result in missed education as a lost opportunity. Reparations can be rehabilitative by directly responding to harms suffered by victims and their ensuing needs, thereby helping to reintegrate those victims into society and restoring to them a functional life. Education can be provided through an administrative program or policy as individual reparations, such as scholarships to victims, as collective reparations, such as the rebuilding of schools in communities hard hit by abuses, and as symbolic reparations, such as naming schools. Court decisions awarding education as a form of reparation have also contributed significantly to our understanding of education as rehabilitation. This article examines the contributions that education as rehabilitation can make to redress as well as the implementation challenges faced by initiatives that have attempted to do so.

The Implementation of the Institutional Programme of Collective Reparations in Colombia

The Implementation of the Institutional Programme of Collective Reparations in Colombia

Beyond Repair?: Collective and Moral Reparations at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

Instituted to try serious crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge period, including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) has been heralded as an historic opportunity for the Court to develop international jurisprudence on reparations and to provide a workable model for how best to address victims’ rights in international criminal trials. At the end of Case 001, however, the Court seems to have fallen well short of those expectations. This article examines how and why the ECCC failed to live up to the high expectations that accompanied its institution. It argues that political pressure, financial constraints, and the absence of a clear understanding of what “collective and moral reparations” entail have all contributed to the Court's failure to realize its original intention to advance the international reparations agenda.

Must Our Communities Bleed to Receive Social Services? Development projects and collective reparations schemes in colombia

The provision of social services in protracted conflicts, such as the Colombian conflict, is scarce and sometimes non-existent. Collective reparations are normally composed of restitution, compensation, rehabilitation and guarantees of no repetition. They constitute what normally would encompass development projects and can provide basic social services in contexts of peace and stability with additional symbolic and psychosocial elements. After more than five decades of conflict in Colombia, it seems that significant political will for transitional justice programmes — and in particular, reparations programmes — has emerged with the 2010 election of President Juan Manuel Santos and the ratification of the 2011 Victim's Law. In 2007, a pilot project of collective reparations programmes was initiated with the support of international development agencies. This paper uses data collected from these pilot projects to demonstrate the complexity of introducing development projects as a form of reparations in conflict-affected communities. It also questions whether it is good policy to require communities to have to ‘bleed first’ to receive basic social services under the auspices of collective reparations and explores the possible problems involved in implementing collective reparations programmes without a comprehensive development policy in post-conflict contexts.

From the Margins of Internationalized Criminal Justice: Lessons Learned at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is the second internationalized criminal justice process in southeast Asia after Timor Leste. Sharing many interesting features with the International Criminal Court (ICC), the ECCC combines extensive victim participation with a reparations mandate. This article discusses the ECCC experience thus far and identifies some preliminary lessons for both the ICC and the Asia-Pacific region in four areas that are often left at the margins of internationalized criminal justice processes: (i) an ECCC outreach programme benefiting from the Court’s in-country location and support from local NGOs; (ii) the gradual learning curve involved with managing large scale victim participation, with 8,000 victims applying to participate in Case 002; (iii) challenges for implementing the court’s collective reparations mandate; and (iv) the potential legacy of the ECCC, being of particular relevance for Cambodia as one of the few countries in the region that ratified the ICC Statute.

Overcoming the Original Sin of the “Original Condition:” How Reparations May Contribute to Emancipatory Peacebuilding

This short article explores the relationship between transitional justice mechanisms and peacebuilding by analysing the role that reparations may play in transforming or deepening conflict. Research seeks to identify potential components of an emancipatory approach to peacebuilding through the prioritisation of ‘transformative reparations’ processes, framing this proposal within the case study of collective reparations to the trade union movement in Colombia.

Providing Reparation in Situations of Mass Victimization - Key Challenges Involved

An abundance of scholarly literature exists on reparation theories and legal procedures or administrative programmes set up to provide reparation to victims of mass atrocities or international crimes, oft en also referred to as gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law. This article aims to provide an analysis of what we consider to be the main challenges to carefully consider when devising and implementing reparative justice measures, whereby the focus is on victims of international crimes leading to mass victimization. In all regions and countries violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms occur and victims should be entitled to redress and reparation. The focus is on situations involving gross and massive violations of human rights, often amounting to crimes under international law as defined in the Statute of the ICC. A first challenge is how to conceptualize victimhood in post-conflict situations. As noted by ani “conflict or repression is often so widespread and traumatising that the entire society is victimised, and there is a need to redefine victims as the entire society’’ (Mani 2005, 68). The conception on who should be considered victims in societies in transition poses several complexities that will be further reflected upon. The second challenge is how to adapt the existing judicial right to an effective individual remedy to the context of mass victimization where it is often claimed that collective reparations might be better suited to provide reparative justice (Roht-Arriaza 2003-2004; Van Boven 1995). Implementing a collective perspective may also result in including general goals of development aid in reparative measures. The third challenge will reflect upon this, by some contested, inclusion of development strategies in reparation programmes (De Greiff & Duthie 2009; Saris & Loft s 2009). In order to present arguments on how to balance this individual versus collective perspective and the inclusion of development goals, we will draw from victimological studies into the needs of victims and notions presented by the human security concept. We realize that providing reparative justice to victims of international crimes requires tailor-made solutions in which the specific (historical, cultural and economic) context of the country should be taken into account. That being said, we do believe that the challenges discussed in article apply in general to situations of mass victimization.