Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Victims of International Crimes: An Interdisciplinary Discourse pp 233–251Cite as

Victims, Excombatants and the Communities: Irreconcilable Demands or a Dangerous Convergence?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

In recent years, scholars and practitioners of transitional justice and international criminal justice have increasingly emphasised the role of victims in post-atrocity justice processes, not only as witnesses but as active participants and beneficiaries of related reparations processes. At the same time, internationally run peacebuilding processes have developed detailed proceedings for disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of excombatants, which include education and training, as well as frequent cash or other benefits. Yet, while these processes pertain to the same conflict, practitioners of each are not always sufficiently aware of the real or potential clashes between them, or the risks of overlap or linking them. Based on empirical evidence from a range of post-atrocity processes, this chapter seeks to outline these risks.

The author is Professor of Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, UK.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Sriram et al. 2012.

  2. 2.

    I am grateful to Amy Ross for this point and her insightful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. I am also grateful to Thorsten Bonacker for comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. Any errors are mine alone.

  3. 3.

    There is a vast literature on the subject. See, for example, Sriram 2004; Teitel 2000; Kritz 1995.

  4. 4.

    The chapter by Eckelmanns addresses victims’ rights in greater detail.

  5. 5.

    The chapter by Drumbl illuminates the difficulty, in the context of child soldiers, of assigning simple labels such as victim or perpetrator.

  6. 6.

    De Feyter et al. 2005; de Greiff 2006.

  7. 7.

    Author’s interviews at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Freetown, July 2011.

  8. 8.

    García-Godos 2006, p. 116.

  9. 9.

    United Nations 2005a, b.

  10. 10.

    Shelton 2006, p. 20.

  11. 11.

    Laplante and Theidon 2007, p. 245.

  12. 12.

    See de Greiff 2006 for detailed discussions of the range of types of reparations.

  13. 13.

    Hayner 2000; Wiebelhaus-Brahm 2010. Other purposes include the promotion of future human rights protections and the promotion of democracy but their records on these are decidedly questionable.

  14. 14.

    I use the term “truth” advisedly, as it is contested in such situations. See García-Godos 2008.

  15. 15.

    Laplante and Theidon 2007.

  16. 16.

    Laplante and Theidon 2007, p. 237.

  17. 17.

    For a critique see Humphrey 2003.

  18. 18.

    I use the word “traditional” advisedly here, recognising that it is a contested term.

  19. 19.

    McCarthy 2009. McCarthy uses the term “reparative justice” to refer to what is commonly known in the literature as “restorative justice”. For a discussion of “reparative justice” as a concept that emphasises “the principle of reparation, as the origin and core of the need for justice in times of violent and brutalizing transition” see Mani 2006. See also Baumgartner 2008; Rauschenbach and Scalia 2008; Henham 2004.

  20. 20.

    United Nations 2005c, 2006a; Gillett 2009; García-Godos 2008; Nwogu 2010; Findlay 2009; Rubio-Marín and de Greiff 2007; McCarthy 2009; Robins 2011.

  21. 21.

    Beck et al. 2010, p. 48.

  22. 22.

    Stovel and Valiñas 2010, pp. 4–7. Both explicate and critique this perspective.

  23. 23.

    Llewellyn 2008, p. 4.

  24. 24.

    Llewellyn 2008, pp. 5, 6.

  25. 25.

    Llewellyn 2008, pp. 7, 11. See also Teitel 2000.

  26. 26.

    Stovel and Valiñas 2010, pp. 2–4; Sriram 2005, pp. 55, 56. Compare Bennett 2006.

  27. 27.

    Author’s interview with Sierra Leonean NGO and government officials, not for attribution, Freetown, July 2011.

  28. 28.

    See generally Humphrey 2003.

  29. 29.

    Quinn 2009.

  30. 30.

    See generally Straus and Waldorf 2011.

  31. 31.

    Stovel and Valiñas 2010, p. 15; Thomson 2011, pp. 331–339.

  32. 32.

    This does not mean that the risk of re-traumatising victims is not present in restorative justice, although restorative justice professionals are possibly more aware of this risk.

  33. 33.

    Of course, this may only be true of the rank and file fighters. Leaders of fighting forces on one or more sides may benefit from peace agreements which guarantee them political and economic power, particularly through power-sharing arrangements.

  34. 34.

    United Nations 2006b.

  35. 35.

    Muggah 2009; Waldorf 2012.

  36. 36.

    United Nations 2006c, para 9b.

  37. 37.

    Muggah 2010.

  38. 38.

    Vandeginste and Sriram 2011.

  39. 39.

    Vandeginste and Sriram 2011, pp. 465, 466.

  40. 40.

    United Nations 2006b, module 6.20.

  41. 41.

    Sriram and Herman 2009.

  42. 42.

    Stovel and Valiñas 2010, p. vi.

  43. 43.

    Laplante and Theidon warn of this risk with truth commissions (Laplante and Theidon 2007, pp. 240, 241).

  44. 44.

    Sriram and Herman 2009.

  45. 45.

    This discussion draws upon Sriram 2012.

  46. 46.

    While it is beyond the scope of this chapter, it is worth recognising that such gendered training might well have been unsuitable for female demobilised. Further evaluations indicate that females associated with fighting forces are often excluded from DDR processes, either because they lack weapons to turn in or because they decline to participate because of the stigma attached.

  47. 47.

    Theidon 2007, p. 73.

  48. 48.

    The very title of the Comisión Nacional de Reparación y Reconciliación, a core institution in the process, speaks to the purported goals. See Theidon 2007; García-Godos and Lid 2010.

  49. 49.

    Theidon 2007, pp. 79, 80, 83.

  50. 50.

    García-Godos 2012. I do not discuss the Victims’ Law because it is too recent for its operation to be assessed.

  51. 51.

    With Drumbl I use this as a term of convenience, recognising that many are in fact (in the language of the Paris Principles) children associated with fighting forces and may not have engaged in direct combat.

  52. 52.

    McKnight 2010; McKay 2004.

References

  • Baumgartner E (2008) Aspects of victim participation in the proceedings of the International Criminal Court. Int Rev Red Cross 90:409–440

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck E, Kropf NP, Blume Leonard P (eds) (2010) Social work and restorative justice: skills for dialogue, peacemaking, and reconciliation. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett C (2006) Taking the sincerity out of saying sorry: restorative justice as ritual. J Appl Philos 23:127–143

    Google Scholar 

  • de Feyter K, Parmentier S, Bossuyt M, Lemmens P (eds) (2005) Out of the ashes: reparation for victims of gross and systematic human rights violations. Intersentia, Antwerpen

    Google Scholar 

  • de Greiff P (ed) (2006) The handbook of reparations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Findlay M (2009) Activating a victim constituency in International Criminal Justice. Int J Transitional Justice 3:183–206

    Google Scholar 

  • García-Godos J (2006) Citizenship, conflict and reconstruction: a case-study of the effects of armed conflict on peasant-state relations in Tambo, Peru. Unipub forlag, Oslo

    Google Scholar 

  • García-Godos J (2008) Victim reparations in the Peruvian Truth Commission and the challenge of historical interpretation. Int J Transitional Justice 2:62–83

    Google Scholar 

  • García-Godos J (2012) Colombia: accountability and DDR in the pursuit of peace? In: Sriram CL, García-Godos J, Herman J, Martin-Ortega O (eds) Transitional justice and peacebuilding on the ground: victims and excombatants. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • García-Godos J, Lid K AO (2010) Transitional justice and victims’ rights before the end of a conflict: the unusual case of Colombia. J Latin Am Stud 42:487–526

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillett M (2009) Victim participation at the International Criminal Court. Aust Int Law J 16:29–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayner P (2000) Unspeakable truths: confronting state terror and atrocity. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Henham R (2004) Some reflections on the role of victims in the international criminal trial process. Int Rev Vict 11:201–224

    Google Scholar 

  • Humphrey M (2003) From victim to victimhood: truth commissions and trials as rituals of political transition and individual healing. Aust J Anthropol 14:171–187

    Google Scholar 

  • Kritz N (1995) Transitional justice: how emerging democracies reckon with former regimes. US Institute of Peace, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Laplante LJ, Theidon K (2007) Truth with consequences: justice and reparations in post-truth commission Peru. Hum Rights Q 29:228–250

    Google Scholar 

  • Llewellyn J (2008) Restorative justice and peacebuilding in post-conflict societies. Paper presented at the annual conference of the International Studies Association San Francisco. www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord_fr.php?RecordId=23155. Accessed 31 May 2012

  • Mani R (2006) Reparations as a component of transitional justice: pursuing “reparative justice” in the aftermath of violent conflict. In: de Feyter K, Parmentier S, Bossuyt M, Lemmens P (eds) Out of the ashes: reparation for victims of gross and systematic human rights violations. Intersentia, Antwerpen, pp. 53–82

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy C (2009) Reparations under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and Reparative Justice Theory. Int J Transitional Justice 3:250–271

    Google Scholar 

  • McKay S (2004) Reconstructing fragile lives: girls’ social reintegration in northern Uganda and Sierra Leone. Gender Dev 12:19–30

    Google Scholar 

  • McKnight J (2010) Child soldiers in Africa: a global approach to human rights protection, enforcement, and post-conflict reintegration. Afr J Int Comp Law 18:113–142

    Google Scholar 

  • Muggah R (2009) Security and post-conflict reconstruction: dealing with fighters in the aftermath of war. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Muggah R (2010) Innovations in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration policy and research: reflections on the last decade, NUPI Working Paper 774, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Oslo. www.english.nupi.no/Publications/Working-Papers/2010/Innovations-in-disarmament-demobilization-and-reintegration-policy-and-research. Accessed 31 May 2012

  • Nwogu NW (2010) When and why it started: deconstructing victim-centered truth commissions in the context of ethnicity-based conflict. Int J Transitional Justice 4:275–289

    Google Scholar 

  • Quinn JR (2009) Reconciliation(s): transitional justice in postconflict societies. McGill-Queens University Press, Montreal

    Google Scholar 

  • Rauschenbach M, Scalia D (2008) Victims and international criminal justice: a vexed question? Int Rev Red Cross 90:441–459

    Google Scholar 

  • Robins S (2011) Towards victim-centred transitional justice: understanding the needs of families of the disappeared in postconflict Nepal. Int J Transitional Justice 5:75–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubio-Marín R, de Greiff P (2007) Women and reparations. Int J Transitional Justice 1:318–337

    Google Scholar 

  • Shelton D (2006) The United Nations draft principles on reparations for human rights violations: context and content. In: de Feyter K, Parmentier S, Bossuyt M, Lemmens P (eds) Out of the ashes: reparation for victims of gross and systematic human rights violations. Intersentia, Antwerpen, pp. 11–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Sriram CL (2004) Confronting past human rights violations: justice versus peace in times of transition. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Sriram CL (2005) Globalizing justice for mass atrocities: a revolution in accountability. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Sriram CL (2012) Victim-centred justice and DDR in Sierra Leone. In: Sriram CL, García-Godos J, Herman J, Martin-Ortega O (eds) Transitional justice and peacebuilding on the ground: victims and excombatants. Routledge, London, pp. 159–177

    Google Scholar 

  • Sriram CL, Herman J (2009) DDR and transitional justice: bridging the divide? J Confl Sec Dev 9:455–474

    Google Scholar 

  • Sriram CL, García-Godos J, Herman J, Martin-Ortega O (eds) (2012) Transitional justice and peacebuilding on the ground: victims and excombatants. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Stovel L, Valiñas M (2010) Restorative justice after mass violence, UNICEF Innocenti Working Paper, Florence. www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/iwp_2010_15.pdf. Accessed 31 May 2012

  • Straus S, Waldorf L (eds) (2011) Remaking Rwanda: state building and human rights after mass violence. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison

    Google Scholar 

  • Teitel R (2000) Transitional justice. New York, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Theidon K (2007) Transitional subjects: the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of former combatants in Colombia. Int J Transitional Justice 1:66–90

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomson S (2011) Reeducation for reconciliation. In: Straus S, Waldorf L (eds) Remaking Rwanda: state building and human rights after mass violence. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp. 331–339

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (2005a) Basic principles and guidelines on the right to a remedy and reparation for victims of gross violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, UN General Assembly Resolution 147, UN GA, 60th Session, UN Doc A/RES/60/147

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (2005b) Draft updated set of principles for the protection and promotion of human rights through action to combat impunity, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2005/102/Add.1

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (2005c) Basic principles on the use of restorative justice programmes in criminal matters, United Nations Economic and Social Council, UN Doc. E/CN.15/2002/5/Add.1

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (2006a) Handbook on restorative justice programmes. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Vienna

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (2006b) Integrated disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration standards, module 6.20. www.unddr.org/iddrs/06/20.php. Accessed 3 April 2012

  • United Nations (2006c) Report of the secretary general on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, UN Doc. A/60/75

    Google Scholar 

  • Vandeginste S, Sriram C L (2011) Power sharing and transitional justice: a clash of paradigms? Glob Gov 17:489–505

    Google Scholar 

  • Waldorf L (2012) Just peace: integrating transitional justice and DDR. In: Sriram CL, García-Godos J, Herman J, Martin-Ortega O (eds) Transitional justice and peacebuilding on the ground: victims and excombatants. Routledge, London, pp. 62–80

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiebelhaus-Brahm E (2010) Truth commissions and transitional societies: the impact on human rights and democracy. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of London, London, UK

    Chandra Lekha Sriram

Authors
  1. Chandra Lekha Sriram
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chandra Lekha Sriram .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut fur Soziologie, Philips Universitat, Ketzerbach 11, Marburg, 35032, Germany

    Thorsten Bonacker

  2. , Institut für Kriminalwissenschaften, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Universitätstraße 6, Marburg, 35032, Germany

    Christoph Safferling

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 T.M.C. ASSER PRESS, The Hague, The Netherlands, and the authors

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Sriram, C.L. (2013). Victims, Excombatants and the Communities: Irreconcilable Demands or a Dangerous Convergence?. In: Bonacker, T., Safferling, C. (eds) Victims of International Crimes: An Interdisciplinary Discourse. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague, The Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-6704-912-2_14

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Societies and partnerships

Search

Navigation