Addressing the suffering of the victims and helping them rebuild their lives.
All victims of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances have a right to full and effective reparations.
Reparations are measures to address the suffering of victims resulting from these horrific crimes and to help them rebuild their lives. Reparations can include:
- Restitution: measures aimed at restoring the victim to the original situation before the crime occurred, including: restoration of liberty, return to one’s place of residence, restoration of employment and return of property.
- Compensation: monetary awards for economically assessable damage, such as: physical or mental harm; lost opportunities, including employment, education and social benefits; material damages and loss of earnings; moral damage; costs required for legal or expert assistance, medicine and medical services and psychological and social services.
- Rehabilitation: medical and psychological care, as well as legal and social services.
- Satisfaction: includes: establishing the truth about the crimes; the search for the whereabouts of the disappeared and for the bodies of those killed; public apology, and commemorations and tributes to the victims.
- Guarantees of non-repetition: measures aimed at ensuring that victims are not subject to other crimes, including: strengthening the independence of the judiciary; human rights training for law enforcement officials as well as military and security forces; and reforming laws that contributed to or allowed the crimes to be committed.
Disturbingly, in most situations where the crimes have been committed, reparations have not been provided to victims and their suffering has been ignored.
Amnesty International campaigns for governments to ensure that victims of these crimes receive full and effective reparations without delay.
Furthermore, to ensure at that they act as a catalyst for national reparations, Amnesty International campaigns for the International Criminal Court and other international and internationalized courts to establish effective systems to provide reparations to victims of crimes that they prosecute.