I Book Review: Victim Organisations and the Politics of Reparation – A Case Study on Rwanda
| Date | 01 December 2005 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410502300413 |
| Published date | 01 December 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Part D: DocumentationI Book Review |
media in telling the truth and the effectiveness of the different appeals to take
action.
Heidy Rombouts,
Victim Organisations and the Politics of Reparation – A
Case Study on Rwanda
, Intersentia, Antwerp, 2004, xviii + 540 p. ISBN: 90-
5095-431-6*
Rombouts’ title boldly states that the issue of reparation for victims of gross human
rights violations is a politicised process. This is a position that many an idealistic
human rights defender would shy away from. This assertion, by Rombouts, confronts
the legal theory of reparations with the competing claims of stakeholders
clambering for recognition in the aftermath of genocide and other gross human
rights violations.
In her opening chapters, Rombouts pays only cursory attention to laying the
legal foundations for reparations. This is actually no great loss, as Theo van Boven
has clarified the issue in his very thorough study concerning the right to restitution,
compensation and rehabilitation for victims of gross violations of human rights and
fundamental freedoms. Subsequent reworkings of Van Boven’s study and basic
principles and guidelines have been no less thorough and many a legal pundit has
added his or her recognition of a right to reparation at international law.
1
Rather
than attempting to illustrate the legitimacy of a right to reparation or studying the
substance of reparations, Rombouts takes a process approach. She focuses on a
bottom up analysis of reparation policy and introduces the reader to a bevy of
victims’ organisations and their activism in the reparations process. She con-
centrates on how reparations policies are developed and decided upon. Her case
study of post-victim organisations shows the surprising sophistication and political
savvy of grass roots organisations in shaping the reparations process.
Rombout refers to treaties and declarations when she is obliged to state an
international or ‘ideal’ standard. In the first part of her thesis, she provides for
example the definition of victim taken from the 1985 UN Declaration of Basic
Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power. However, in the
second part of the thesis we see this definition held up against local constructions of
victimhood. Field research allowed a particularly accurate analysis of parametres of
terms such as rescape
´sas constructed by victim organisations. And the value of
qualitative research is most evident in her analysis of definitions of rescape
´sor victims.
The definition of victim Rombout adopts is dynamic and also takes into account the
various (and often conflicting) definitions put forth by victims’ organisations. This
decision shows the gap between official supranational definitions and perspectives
at the local level, political and social issues which factor into the creation of a victim
group.
I Book Reviews
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 23/4 (2005) 695
* Chiseche Mibenge is a junior researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM),
Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
1
See Orentlicher, D.F., ‘Addressing Gross Human Rights Abuses: Punishment and Victim
Compensation’, in: Henkin, L. and Hargrove, J.L. (eds), Human Rights: An Agenda for the Next
Century, The American Society of International Law, Washington DC, 1994, pp. 425-426; Brooks,
Roy L. (ed.), When Sorry Isn’t Enough: The Controversy over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice,
New York University Press, New York, 1999; and Zegveld, Liesbeth, ‘Remedies for Victims of
Violations of International Humanitarian Law’, International Review of the Red Cross, No.
851, September 2003, at pp. 497 and 523.
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