(This session took place in-person under Chatham House Rule, and was thus not recorded).
The session centres the lived expertise of rights holders and victims and survivors of gross political violence and human rights abuses, who are largely excluded from meaningful roles in existing conflict/post-conflict rule of law processes. Focusing on two different processes, we foreground initiatives catalysing change, particularly in national and international platforms.
The participation of victims in justice processes is increasingly promoted in Transitional Justice efforts, which is responding to calls for victim-centredness to make the processes of justice more meaningful for victims and survivors. This is a very important development because only by heeding the voices of victims and survivors, their desires and needs can truth, justice and reparation efforts really respond to their needs.
Nevertheless, often such participation frameworks (for example those introduced in Colombia) are quite time consuming for victims, require them to adapt to new and specific forms of organisation and participation, and often their impact is fairly limited. There is a risk that victim participation is only used to legitimate official initiatives, and this then can have the counterproductive effect of making survivors feel even more powerless. This was for example also the case in South Africa, where consultations did not lead to any effects on reparations. Also, such effort do not structurally change the tendency of victims not having the opportunity to speak for themselves, in fact even though they can speak for themselves, their opinions are not taken into account.
This session involved panelists Habib Nassar (Director of Research and Policy, Impunity Watch), Galuh Wandita (Executive Director, Asia Justice and Rights, Indonesia), Laura Cortes (Director, BSocial Group, Colombia), Ram Kumar Bhandari (Co-founder of INOVAS, Nepal), Dr. Christalla Yakinthou (University of Birmingham, England), Dodi Yuniar (Indonesia Program Coordinator, Asia Justice & Rights, Indonesia), Dr. Louis Monroy (Assistant Professor in International Relations at Pontificia Unversidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia) and Dr. Sanne Weber (Impunity Watch & the University of Birmingham).