Exploring the relationship between reparations, the gross violations of human rights, and restorative justice

Abstract

[Extract] The relationship between reparations, responses to the gross violation of human rights, and restorative justice is only recently finding a place in the broad and expanding literature on restorative justice. This chapter explores the relationship through a consideration of the international movement to provide reparations for the victims of human rights abuses.

The linking of discussions on reparations for human rights abuses with discussions about restorative justice provides an important opportunity for rethinking a number of fundamental processes, relationships, and functions such as the role of the state, the relationship between victims and offenders, and the broader political and historical processes which shape how we define and respond to crime.