Finding a way to live with the past: ‘self‐repair’, ‘informal repair’, and reparations in transitional justice
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| Author | SUNNEVA GILMORE,LUKE MOFFETT |
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12311 |
DOI: ./j ols.
ARTICLE
Finding a way to live with the past: ‘self-repair’,
‘informal repair’, and reparations in transitional
justice
SUNNEVA GILMORE LUKE MOFFETT
School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast,
Main Site Tower, Belfast, BTPB,
Northern Ireland
Correspondingauthor
SunnevaGilmore, School of Law, Queen’s
UniversityBelfast, Main Site Tower,
Belfast,BT PB, Northern Ireland
Email:sgilmore@qub.ac.uk
Abstract
Reparations are widely regarded as a key element of
dealing with the past in transitional justice. Over the past
three decades, there has been a plethora of state practice,
jurisprudence, and international norms requiring states
and other responsible actors to redress victims’ harm.
Yet in practice there remain significant deficiencies in
delivering reparations on the ground to those affected.
This article explores what victims and their civil society
allies do to manage their suffering in the absence of or
delay to reparations. Drawing upon fieldwork in seven
societies transitioning from conflict, we suggest that vic-
tims find their own way to live with the past as they await
reparations, through ‘self-repair’ measures or through
‘informal repair’ provided by non-governmental organi-
zations. This alternative perspective aims to shed light
on victims’ agency and resilience, as well as to critique
notions of state dependence that a needs and rights dis-
course often encourages with victims. Wealso argue that
victims’ self-repair strategies and informal pathwayscan
complement more formal measures, and be conducive to
victims making the most of state-based reparation pro-
grammes.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionLicense, which permits use, distribution and reproduc-
tion in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
© The Authors. Journal of Law and Society published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of CardiffUniversity (CU).
J. Law Soc. ;:–. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jols 455
456 J L S
1 INTRODUCTION
We cannot now wait for government to come and give us support – we’ve started
doing it ourselves as victims.
Reparations cannot heal victims. As a key pillar of transitional justice, reparations hold out the
promise of remedying the harm caused to victims through measures made by responsible actors.
Yet the literature on reparations overlooks victims’ agency in how they manage their harm and
find ways to repair some of their suffering themselves. In the face of mass atrocities, reparations
are often justified as measures to redress the harm caused, as part of a political project to rebuild
civic trust and/or symbolic measures to restore relationships. This can appear idealistic, belying
the realities of repairing the irreparable. Moreover,the vast majority of transitional societies fail to
deliver effective reparations to victims, meaning that they have to relyon the support of civil soci-
ety or themselves through ‘self-repair’ or ‘informal repair’. Drawing upon empirical research and
the experience of victims in a number of post-conflict societies, this article develops the concepts
of self-repair and informal self to fill in this gap in knowledge and experience between healing
and remedying the past.
There is a growing literature in transitional justice that complicates the assumptions about
victims’ agency and calls for a more participatory bottom-up approach to constructing justice
and reparations.Nevertheless, there remains strong critique of victims’ agency and voices being
‘picked out, appropriated and then re-presented to suit’ other transitional justice actors. Kendall
and Nouwen argue that the imagery of victims is often used to legitimize justice interventions,
with victims’ voices increasingly abstracted, depoliticized, and re-represented.Much of this
critique stems from Christie’s ‘ideal victim’, which emphasizes how we prioritize seeking justice
for the weak, helpless person, rather than for the more complex ‘non-ideal victim’. Doing so
overlooks individuals’ agency in self-identification and self-determination, which means that
they do not always fit neatly into how social systems frame victimhood.Schwöbel-Patel takes
this argument further, describing how victims cast as weak and vulnerable thereby become
dependent beneficiaries of the good acts of professional justice agents, who ‘not only invoke
victimhood, but .. . monopolize the expertise required for speaking for the victims, therefore
depriving the victims of the agency to speak for themselves’.The appropriation of victims’
suffering also plays into ‘maintaining the status quo’, which enables the deepening of ‘existing
Interview UG, Gulu, July .
K. McEvoy,‘Beyond Legalism: Towards a Thicker Understanding of Transitional Justice’ () J.of Law and Society
; P. Lundy and M. McGovern, ‘Whose Justice? Rethinking Transitional Justice from the Bottom Up’ () J. of
Law and Society ; S. Robins, ‘Failing Victims? The Limits of TransitionalJustice in Addressing the Needs of Victims of
Violations’ () Human Rights and International Legal Discourse .
K. McEvoy and K. McConnachie, ‘Victims and Transitional Justice: Voice,Agency and Blame’ () Social and Legal
Studies , at .
S. Kendall and S. Nouwen, ‘Representational Practices at the International Criminal Court: The Gap between Juridified
and Abstract Victimhood’ () Law and Contemporary Problems .
N. Christie, ‘Ideal Victim’ in From Crime Policy to Victim Policy:Reorienting the Justice System, ed. E. Fattah () .
C. Schwöbel-Patel, ‘The “Ideal” Victim of International Criminal Law’ () The European J. of International Law
, at .
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