Reparations are one of the most difficult things to do well in transitional justice contexts, where the financial, political, and administrative challenges can be enormous. ICTJ has worked in various countries to provide assistance at different stages of their reparations process: helping to define beneficiaries, establish outreach programs, develop effective registration processes, and ensure that programs are adequately managed and funded.

We also intervene in court proceedings nationally and internationally in countries where there are meaningful prospects for reparations, to make sure states meet their obligations. We have helped to ensure that reparations are understood as multifaceted – individual, collective, material, and symbolic. In peace processes, our advice has led to the incorporation of reparations principles into negotiations and ultimately into the content of peace agreements themselves. We share knowledge of comparative experiences about the many dimensions of reparations - including collective reparations, apologies, and links to poverty - with our local partners, and help them build networks to share these lessons with their counterparts.

Examples of such work include Cambodia, where we assisted the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), established to prosecute former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, to draft and revise the regulations that now govern court-ordered reparations in its cases.

In Colombia, ICTJ worked within the peace process between the government and the FARC to include reparations in the final Victims’ Agreement. In collaboration with CODHES, a civil society organization that works on human rights for internally displaced persons, we also started the Collective Reparations Observatory.

In the Philippines, our years of active engagement helped set the stage for legislation that granted reparations and recognition to victims of human rights violations during the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship.

In Peru we worked with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which adopted our recommendations on defining reparations and consulting victims and civil society organizations. Those recommendations were later passed into law and several have since been implemented. We submitted proposals that the government later adopted to increase the symbolic component of collective reparations and to bolster the participation of women.

And in Côte d’Ivoire, we advised the National Social Cohesion Program, the Ministry of Solidarity, Social Cohesion and Victims Compensation, and the National Commission for the Reconciliation and Compensation of Victims on how to define reparations for victims of the election violence of 2010-2011. We also consulted on how to register victims, combine existing databases, and reach those victims previously excluded from such processes, especially from more remote areas. Our consultation and dialogue process with victims in marginalized areas ensured that their views were considered by the relevant state agencies. We also helped those organizations, including women’s organizations, to monitor the registration process and provide insight into its shortcomings.