Proponents of Victim

Proponents of Victim

There is a growing awareness that addressing past injustice is a crucial part of the process of healing and reconciliation. In order to move towards a peaceful future, governments must acknowledge and respond to the wrongs and injuries of the past, especially human rights violations. Doing so takes various forms. One way is through compensation programs and reparations for the victims of injustice. Many note that issues of compensation and rehabilitation of victims should be incorporated into plans for post-conflict reconstruction and economic revitalization (Brooks, 2012)

To commit human injustice is to violate or suppress people's rights or fundamental freedoms as recognized by international law. Unfortunately, many instances of injustice can be tied to policies either condoned or consciously chosen by active governments. These state-sponsored human rights violations include genocide, slavery, torture, arbitrary detention, rape, and systematic discrimination. Such violations cause serious damage to the physical and moral integrity of individuals and to the very existence of groups, communities, and peoples. Although these harms are often irreparable, international and national courts have required states to pay victims compensation for both material and psychological injury sustained as a direct result of their actions or policies. This serves both to acknowledge the violation and to sanction the state in question. A society that once tolerated human rights abuses must come to terms with the past, accept responsibility, and try to make amends (Boven et al. 2011)

Customary international law provides the legal foundation for victims' right to compensation. Various international treaties have recognized that victims of gross human rights violations and war crimes have a right to restitution, compensation, and rehabilitation. And the obligation to provide compensation for victims of injustice has become part of international humanitarian law. Article Eight of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example, states that everyone has the right to an effective remedy. And Article 10 of the American Convention on Human Rights refers to a "right to be compensated in accordance with the law." Such laws stress the importance of publicly recognizing the damages caused by injustice and of addressing the needs of victims.

Compensation serves a variety of important functions. First, it helps victims to manage the material aspect of their loss. Individual financial grants help to bring immediate economic relief to the victims and allow them to fulfill basic survival needs. In many cases, monetary reparations in the form of monthly payments are essential to ensure victims' survival. At the collective level, funds for community rehabilitation programs ensure that survivors of gross human rights violations receive proper treatment. Monetary compensation programs may also deter the state from future abuses by imposing a financial cost on such misdeeds. (Brooks, 2012)

However, many note that such reparations are not primarily about money, but rather about making crucial repairs to individuals' psyches, and to social and political institutions. Compensation programs serve to publicly acknowledge wrongdoing, restore survivors' dignity, and raise public awareness about the harms victims have suffered. For this reason, reparations for former victims or their ...