A/HRC/42/45
although not necessarily at the same level or of the same kind”. 20 They should also be
comprehensive, in terms of the types of violations that are selected for reparation, 21 and
complex, in terms of the forms of reparation used to redress victims. 22 A programme should
also be coherent internally, in the relationship between the different forms of reparation
received by victims, and externally, in the relationship between these programmes and
other transitional justice measures. 23 Domestic programmes should aim at finality,
addressing the question of the potential coexistence of judicial reparation and domestic
reparation programmes.24 Finally, munificence, which looks at how dignifying the benefits
are, is also important.25
B.
Lessons learned for effective domestic reparation programmes
46.
Besides the legal and normative framework that could facilitate the design and
implementation of domestic reparation programmes, their architecture is of crucial
importance. 26 There is no single way to design such programmes. However, in practice,
some have proven better than others.
Setting up victims’ registries
47.
Individual and collective registries of victims are crucial in order to have realistic
projections of the level of victimhood in States undergoing transitions. Adequate registries
also help in estimating the cost of redressing the potential beneficiaries of the programme
and in planning resource allocation. Registries could also facilitate reparation for victims in
urgent need of attention, through urgent reparation programmes. They also constitute a key
measure of acknowledgment, satisfaction and memory.
48.
Even if registries are created, the number of victims registered at any given point in
time cannot be taken to be the whole universe of victims, as underregistration is a common
challenge. It is important that registration processes include flexible time frames for
registration, and that they truly reach out to all victims.
49.
Experience indicates that registries are not always set up as part of domestic
reparation programmes, which is regrettable. So are the cases, for example in Guatemala or
Iraq, where despite tireless work by civil society to this end, the government has failed to
establish them.27 In other cases, registries were set up after domestic reparation programmes
had been designed and established, as in the case of Peru where the Unique Registry of
Victims was created as part of the Comprehensive Reparations Plan.
50.
In Argentina, for example, registration began with the registration of persons who
had been disappeared and killed during the dictatorship, through the work of the National
Commission on the Disappearance of Persons. The Commission was crucial in facilitating
later work identifying other victims. As a result, the Unified Registry of Victims of State
Terrorism was established in 2013 within the Secretariat of Human Rights.
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
8
Rule-of-Law Tools for Post-Conflict States: Reparation Programmes (United Nations publication,
Sales No. E.08.XIV.3), p. 15.
Ibid., p. 19; and A/69/518, para. 26.
A/69/518, para. 30.
Pablo De Greiff (ed.), The Handbook of Reparations (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006), pp.
10–11.
Ibid., p. 12; and Rule-of-Law Tools for Post-Conflict States: Reparation Programmes, p. 35.
Pablo De Greiff (ed.), The Handbook of Reparations, p. 12.
Alexander Segovia, “The reparations proposals of the truth commissions in El Salvador and Haiti: a
history of noncompliance”, in Pablo De Greiff (ed.), The Handbook of Reparations, pp. 154–176, at
p. 157.
Procurador de los Derechos Humanos (Guatemala), “Informe de monitoreo realizado a las sedes
regionales del Programa Nacional de Resarcimiento” (May 2018), p. 3; and Clara Sandoval and
Miriam Puttick, Reparations for the Victims of Conflict in Iraq: Lessons Learned from Comparative
Practice (Ceasefire and Minority Rights Group International, 2017), p. 26.
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