A/HRC/14/22 35. Judicial arenas for obtaining reparations are, however, riddled with difficulties. Procedural obstacles that victims of sexual violence have traditionally encountered in the judicial arena can amount to an experience of re-victimization, exposing women not only to psychological harm but also to reprisal, stigma and communal and family ostracism. Crucial here are both the evidentiary standards relied upon and the degree of confidentiality upheld during the reparations process. 36. Furthermore, a judicial approach does not endorse forms of reparations that have the potential to challenge pre-existing gender hierarchies, including those that result in women holding less property than men, having lesser educational opportunities and, hence, less income-generating potential. While criminal and tort procedures may seek to apportion individual responsibility for moral and material harm and grant reparations to victims, they do not provide the proper framework for rehabilitation and guarantees of non-repetition, which may have the greatest transformative potential. Nevertheless, judicial institutions remain important arenas. 37. Therefore, in the context of mass violations, reparations are better located in administrative reparations schemes than by case-by-case judicial adjudications that seek compensation in proportion to harm. Administrative reparations programmes can obviate some of the difficulties and costs associated with litigation, including high expenses, the need to gather evidence which may sometimes be unavailable, the pain associated with cross-examination and the lack of trust in the judicial system. This may be particularly relevant for women in general and for victims of sexual violence in particular. 38. The administrative arena also enables a proactive approach to reaching victims and may provide a satisfactory platform for focusing on information about victims including their number, socio-economic profile, age, gender breakdown, family structures, the violations they have suffered or an account of the effects of the violations on their lives. This information is all relevant to understanding the structural component of the violations, the share of State responsibility by either action or omission and the gender-specific impact of the violence on women’s and girls’ lives. 39. Another advantage of reparations programmes crafted through legislative or administrative schemes is that victims, victims’ groups and civil society in general can be involved in the process in more proactive ways than judicial proceedings allow for. This not only facilitates access to the information needed for the proper design of a programme, but has in and of itself a reparative effect, by conveying a sense of agency. While this is true for all victims in general, it may be even more so for women, given that they ordinarily face more difficulties reaching the public sphere and interacting with the State. 40. The question of timing is also important in determining women’s access to reparations, especially for crimes of a sexual nature. Since the preconditions for reporting and testifying on sexual abuse are not always present in the aftermath of conflict or repression — especially in poverty-ridden scenarios where women’s health conditions are extremely poor — reparations programmes should not sacrifice adequate accessibility to the otherwise legitimately felt urgency of society to move forward. Narrow applications deadlines or a closed-list system may not allow different victims to come forward and claim reparations when they feel physically and psychologically prepared to do so. 2. Substantive considerations: understanding harm to women 41. Reparations programmes allow for the simplification, in a consistent manner, of a complex reality of mass and gross violations of human rights by relying more or less explicitly on a set of common elements, including: the definition of “victims” or the selection of the list of violations or crimes for which there will be reparations; the definition of “beneficiaries” as the group of persons who are eligible for the benefits to be distributed; 12 GE.10-13109