Reparations

Women Survivors of Sexual Violence and the Need to Repair. A Comparative Analysis of Timor-Leste and Haiti

Citation:

Badulescu, C. L., and D. AM. Radu. 2019. "Women Survivors of Sexual Violence and the Need to Repair. A Comparative Analysis of Timor-Leste and Haiti." Paper presented at the 1st Congress of the Mukwege International Chair, Liege, November 13-15.

Authors: CL Badulescu, D AM Radu

Abstract:

The truth commissions which were authorized to operate in Timor-Leste and Haiti edited final reports whose recommendations included among others a set of reparations proposals for the victims of the human rights violations. We will analyze in what way reparations contributed to the rehabilitation of women survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. To this end, we will look at how both Timor-Leste and Haiti designed and implemented programs in accordance with the reparations proposals included in the truth commissions' reports.
 
The comparative analysis will look at the differences and similarities regarding the manner in which the two countries approached the issue of women survivors of sexual violence in the elaboration of the truth commissions' reports, in the proposed reparations and in their implementation. The societal resources invested by Timor-Leste and Haiti in supporting and promoting reparations programs will also be assessed.
 
The comparative method will rely upon the content analysis of truth commissions 'reports, of official and unofficial documents, of government officials' statements, and of several interviews conducted with representatives of NGOs that deal with the implementation of reparations programs in Timor-Leste and Haiti. We will emphasize the potential, but also the limits of reparations programs in addressing the issue of conflict-related sexual violence against women and to the extent to which they have been tailored to their needs.

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Women, Justice, Reparations, TRCs, NGOs, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Americas, Caribbean countries, Oceania Countries: Haiti, Timor-Leste

Year: 2019

Reparation for Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the (Post) Conflict Context: the Need to Address Abuses by Peacekeepers and Humanitarian Aid Workers

Citation:

Ferstman, Carla. 2020. "Reparation for Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the (Post) Conflict Context: the Need to Address Abuses by Peacekeepers and Humanitarian Aid Workers." In Reparations for Victims of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, edited by Carla Ferstman and Mariana Goetz, 271-97. Leiden: Brill Nijhoff.

Author: Carla Ferstman

Annotation:

Summary:
"This chapter focuses on remedies and reparation for sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated in conflict and post-conflict settings by those with a specific mandate to help: peacekeepers and associated personnel and the staff of humanitarian aid agencies." (Ferstman 2020, 271)

Topics: Conflict, Humanitarian Assistance, Justice, Reparations, Peacekeeping, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Year: 2020

Skirts as Flags: Transitional Justice, Gender and Everyday Nationalism in Kosovo

Citation:

Krasniqi, Vjollca, Ivor Sokolic, and Denisa Kostovicova. 2020. "Skirts as Flags: Transitional Justice, Gender and Everyday Nationalism in Kosovo." Nations and Nationalism 26 (2): 461-76.

Authors: Vjollca Krasniqi, Ivor Sokolic, Denisa Kostovicova

Keywords: art, Gender, nationalism, transitional justice, Kosovo

Annotation:

Summary: 
"In this article, we bring the perspective of everyday nationalism to the feminist theorizing in the field of transitional justice and investigate gendered dimensions of post‐conflict nation building. Our aim is to understand possibilities for achieving gender‐just peace characterized by the transformation of gender relations, as well as their obstacles. Feminist scholarship has captured complex, contested, and ambiguous dynamics of shifting gender relations in conflict and post‐conflict settings in the everyday domain. Despite increasing understanding of women's agency and its limits, the entrenchment of dominant hierarchical norms at the intersection of gender and the nation remains puzzling. Everyday nationalism directs attention to mundane aspects of nationhood. It also offers a bottom–up perspective on top–down processes of “formal” nationalism and their interplay with everyday constructions of nationhood. The alignment between these bottom–up and top–down processes reveals how national ideologies are legitimized and hierarchical gender relations entrenched. We ask, does the public recognition of wartime sexual violence and women's suffering challenge the norms and habits of masculine nationhood and pave the way for a new start free of patriarchal hierarchies? Or does it entrench a gendered war “metanarrative” (Björkdahl & Mannergren Selimovic, 2015, p. 172) and with it, unequal gender relations? We study a public art installation about wartime sexual violence in Kosovo aimed at tackling the stigma and silence about wartime rape. The analysis is focused on how this artistic practice, as a symbol, discourse, and performance, as well as an intervention in the everyday domain, offers recognition of wartime sexual violence, and how this recognition responds to, or interacts with, existing gendered dynamics of nationhood. Drawing on Malešević (2013, p. 14), we argue that nationalism and nationhood transcend the public/private dichotomy by connecting institutions and organizations, such as public art installations, to everyday microinteractions. We show that the public endorsement of the art project and the acceptance of wartime sexual violence result in the recognition of the war crime but not the victim. Dynamics of everyday nationalism reinforce gender asymmetries and women's marginalization in a nation‐building process even while their suffering is being acknowledged publicly. Twenty years after the war in Kosovo ended, justice for ethnic Albanian women victims of sexual violence is still largely elusive. Their suffering has been sidelined both in international criminal prosecutions as well as in hybrid domestic war crime trials. The recent adoption by Kosovo's parliament of a reparations law for wartime sexual and gender‐based violence marks formal progress. But, its impact on actual redress for this wartime harm has been limited. One of the major obstacles for women coming forward to claim the reparations is the stigma surrounding wartime sexual violence. The stigma is steeped in gendered patriarchal mores playing themselves out in the politics of postwar peacebuilding within the victims' national community, and it pervades everyday life. By focusing on how an artistic intervention can promote justice for victims of wartime rape, we explore an avenue for supporting gender‐just peacebuilding that is an alternative to women's activism, legal responses, and formal gender equality policies. Despite the “context‐specific natures of claims of justice” (Murphy, 2017, p. 6), the case study of Kosovo reflects the typical pattern of gender‐based harm and the challenges of building gender‐just peace after a civil war. Therefore, our findings reveal everyday dynamics of gendering nation building and contribute to the wider understanding of how the redress for wartime sexual violence perpetuates gender‐insensitive peace (Chinkin & Kaldor, 2013). Empirical research in this article draws on a range of sources. These include the analysis of the Thinking of You art installation, published interviews with the artist, reports of domestic and international media outlets (in Albanian and English), a documentary film about the installation with the same title (Mendoj Për Ty|Thinking of You–Documentary), and speeches by former president of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga. We first outline feminist perspectives on transitional justice and present the analytical gains of applying an everyday nationalism perspective to the study of gendered construction of nationhood. This is followed by a background section on the war, sexual and gender‐based violence, and postwar stigma in Kosovo, as well as an overview of the art installation. The analysis is organized around three conceptual dimensions of everyday nationalism: symbols, discourse, and performance." (Krasniqi et al 2020, 461-2)

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Gender Hierarchies, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Reparations, Transitional Justice, War Crimes, Nationalism, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Kosovo

Year: 2020

Gender and Reparations: Seeking Transformative Justice

Citation:

Jones, Emily. 2020. "Gender and Reparations: Seeking Transformative Justice." In Reparations for Victims of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, edited by Carla Ferstman and Mariana Goetz, 86-118. Leiden: Brill Nijhoff.

Author: Emily Jones

Annotation:

Summary: 
"In response to concerns around often returning people to situations of inequality through the way reparations are currently applied, there have been multiple calls for and attempts to implement more transformative forms of reparations, i.e. reparations which seek to address and subvert pre-existing unequal and discriminatory structures. Section two of this chapter outlines some of these responses, focusing on transformative reparations both as an essential framing of reparations from a gender perspective as well as an area in which further gender analysis could be pursued to great gain. However, since transformative reparations are largely undefined, how and whether such reparations have been taken up, or not, depends on one's perspective on what transformative reparations exactly entail. Section three therefore draws on feminist work as a way through which to provide an analysis of what transformative reparations could and have included. I then go on, in section four, to analyse some specific examples of reparations that have been used to challenge pre-existing structural inequalities, focusing on the Cotton Fields judgment at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), and outlining the gender literature on reparations programmes. I argue that further and more radical transformative reparations are needed. Such reparations, it is posed, are possibly best implemented through guarantees of non-repetition.
 
Drawing on the examples given in sections three and four, section five outlines some possible ways in which gender-just transformative reparations can be developed further. One way that transformative reparations could be and to some extent have been applied is through communal reparations such as education, training and housing programmes seeking to challenge and change oppressive structures in society. I argue that there is a need for reparations in these forms to be applied more often and their reach to be extended both in terms of what they offer and who is included. The need for a greater recognition of the currently often marginalised framework of economic and social rights is also noted, arguing for the further integration of these rights into reparatios frameworks. I then go on to note the need for intersectional analyses within the field of transformative reparations. Such analyses are required to ensure that transformative reparations can properly understand and take full account of the various harms many people face due to discrimination, structural inequality and oppression.
 
The final section of this chapter analyses the limited of the field of gender and transformative reparations by drawing on other critical approaches to international law which have been little applied to this area, including post-colonial feminist analyses. Noting that reparations are a secondarily applied right granted in response to a primary rights violation, the limits of the human rights framework in being able to provide transformative justice is questioned. I conclude by arguing that further critical engagement is essential both in order to frame reparations in truly transformative ways as well as to understand the limits of the transformative project and, subsequently, of human rights law, in being able to provide transformation." (Jones 2020, 86-7)

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Education, Feminisms, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Law, International Human Rights, Intersectionality, Justice, Reparations, Rights, Human Rights

Year: 2020

In the Aftermath of Reparations: The Experiences of Female Beneficiaries of Ghana's Reparations Programme

Citation:

Baiden, Regina Akosua Dede. 2019. "In the Aftermath of Reparations: The Experiences of Female Beneficiaries of Ghana's Reparations Programme." Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 14 (1): 22-35.

Author: Regina Akosua Dede Baiden

Abstract:

With increased attention to the needs of women in conflict and post-conflict situations, a multitude of resolutions on Women, Peace and Security have been adopted at the international level. Security Council Resolutions 1325, 1820, and 2122 all reflect an increased recognition of the need to engage, monitor, and increase women’s participation in post-conflict recovery process. Although scholars on reparations have focused on the benefits that a gendered perspective brings to reparations programmes, scare research exists on the experiences of women years after the acquisition of reparation. This article investigates the lived experiences of female beneficiaries of Ghana’s reparations programme 8 years after completion of the programme. It highlights the violence experienced by four female beneficiaries of the programme, showing the long-term impacts of violence on their lives. The article reveals the reparations programme’s inability to adequately address the effect of violence on the lives of female beneficiaries.

Keywords: gender-based violence, women's rights, reparations, transitional justice, economic violence, resilience

Topics: Gender, Women, Justice, Reparations, Post-Conflict, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325, UNSCR 1820, UNSCR 2122, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana

Year: 2019

The Case for Transformative Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Rakhine State at the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights

Citation:

Bradley, Samantha. 2019. "The Case for Transformative Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Rakhine State at the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights." Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law 20 (2): 181-226.

Author: Samantha Bradley

Abstract:

This article addresses the question of whether Rohingya victims of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in Rakhine State in 2017 have recourse to transformative reparations at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). CRSV was widespread during the August 2017 non-international armed conflict in Rakhine State. CRSV also occurred in the context of longstanding subjugation of the Rohingya minority by the Government of Myanmar and Myanmar’s security forces perpetrating sexual violence against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities. Transformative reparations for CRSV are reparations intended to engender structural changes to improve victims’ circumstances and guarantee non-recurrence. An evaluation of ASEAN’s human rights frameworks and the mandate, purposes and principles underpinning the AICHR, reveals unexplored potential for transformative reparations for CRSV at the AICHR for Rohingya victims of CRSV in Rakhine State in 2017. The ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance is well placed to coordinate the delivery of transformative reparations in Myanmar.

Keywords: conflict-related sexual violence, reparations, transformative reparations, ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, ASEAN Human Rights Declaration

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnicity, Humanitarian Assistance, International Organizations, Justice, Reparations, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar

Year: 2019

Engaging Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Social Movements: The Case for Reparations

Citation:

Laxminarayan, Malini, and Benjamin Durr. 2019. "Engaging Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Social Movements: The Case for Reparations." In Peace, Reconciliation and Social Justice Leadership in the 21st Century: Volume 8, edited by H. Eric Schockman, Vanessa Alexandra Hernandez Soto, and Aldo Boitano De Moras, 263-78. Bingham: Emerland Publishing Limited.

Authors: Malini Laxminarayan, Benjamin Durr

Abstract:

SEMA and its focus on reparations is both influenced by and influences survivor leaders, who entail a crucial part of decision-making. Through its survivor-led core, SEMA ensures that the voices that can bring about the most change are made central, and the strength of women is reinforced.

Keywords: conflict-related sexual violence, survivors, reparations, peacebuilding, women empowerment, transitional justice

Topics: Gender, Women, Justice, Reparations, Sexual Violence

Year: 2019

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal's First Reparation for Gender-Based Crimes

Citation:

Grey, Rosemary, Yim Sotheary, and Kum Somaly. 2019. "The Khmer Rouge Tribunal's First Reparation for Gender-Based Crimes." Australian Journal of Human Rights 25 (3): 488-97.

Authors: Rosemary Grey, Yim Sotheary, Kum Somaly

Abstract:

The Khmer Rouge’s crimes of forced marriage and sexual violence have been commemorated in a dance production, entitled Pka Sla Krom Angkar. It is one of several artworks that were recognised in 2018 as “reparations” by the United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge Tribunal, known officially as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). In this article, researchers from Australia and Cambodia reflect on the production’s significance from multiple perspectives. It is a catalyst for discussing human rights; a tool for promoting psychological healing; and a part of the ECCC’s legal process.

Keywords: ECCC, International Criminal Law, Cambodia, forced marriage, gender-based crimes, reparations

Topics: Gender-Based Violence, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Reparations, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Cambodia

Year: 2019

Reparations for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Lessons from the International Criminal Court

Citation:

Hodgson, Natalie. 2018. "Reparations for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Lessons from the International Criminal Court." Precedent, no. 144, 48-51. 

Author: Natalie Hodgson

Abstract:

Throughout the world, reparations have been used as a response to mass violence and serious violations of human rights in countries such as Cambodia, Mexico and South Africa. In Australia, reparations schemes to redress the harms of the Stolen Generations have been implemented in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia. Additionally, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse referred to reparations principles while formulating its recommendations for redress.1 As such, it is increasingly important for Australian lawyers to understand how reparations can be used to secure justice for victims of human rights violations.

Topics: Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Reparations, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Violence Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2018

The 'Transformative' in Reparations: Women, Nation and Victimhood in Croatia

Citation:

Saric, Josipa. 2018. "The 'Transformative' in Reparations: Women, Nation and Victimhood in Croatia." PhD diss., University of Kent.

Author: Josipa Saric

Abstract:

This thesis interrogates the assumption that women's inclusion in the design of reparations increases their potential to transform structural gender inequality. In recent years, the call for increasing 'women's participation' in the design and implementation of reparations for victims of conflict-related sexual violence has gained substantial traction in both scholarship and policy. While existing research has focused on the structural obstacles that place limitations on women's participation in reparation processes, little has been said about how women's participation may limit the transformative potential of reparations. Drawing on a wide range of qualitative data, ranging from interviews to social media content, this case study takes a socio-legal approach to examine the role of a Croatian right-wing, non-feminist women's group in the process of drafting and adopting a reparation law for victims of conflict-related sexual violence and considers how this group's involvement has impacted the reparation law's potential to transform structural gender inequality in Croatia. The thesis shows that the women's group acquired influence that directed the course of the legislative process and the outcome of the law due to its particular discourse, strategic actions, calculated compromises and the socio-political context at the time. Furthermore, the thesis argues that the women's group's influence facilitated the reparation law's alignment to a particular nationalist discourse which, due to the inextricable link between gender and nationalism, places limitations on the law's potential to transform structural gender inequality in Croatia. Finally, it presents three important points to consider when conducting an evaluation of the law's implementation and embarking on the design of future transformative reparation initiatives in nationalist contexts. First, that the inclusion of women and victims may not necessarily lead to developing reparations that aim to transform structural gender inequality. Second, that a reparation law exclusively aimed at victims of conflict-related sexual violence designed in a context saturated with nationalism may reinforce gender inequality. And third, that the involvement of international bodies in the design and implementation of reparations in nationalist contexts may be used by local grassroots movements to put pressure on the state in unforeseen ways that do not challenge structural gender inequality.

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Justice, Reparations, Nationalism, Political Participation, Sexual Violence Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Croatia

Year: 2018

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