CIAO DATE: 12/99

Repairing the Irreparable: Dealing with double-binds of making reparations for crimes of the past

Brandon Hamber

Dealing with the Past
Reconciliation Processes And Peace-Building
June 8–9, 1998

Initiative on Conflict Resolution and Ethnicity

 

Let me begin by noting that reparation is not just about money, it is not even mostly about money; in fact, money is not even one percent of what reparation is about. Reparation is mostly about making repairs; self-made repairs, on ourselves—mental repairs, psychological repairs, cultural repairs, organisational repairs, social repairs, institutional repairs, technological repairs, economic repairs, political repairs, educational repairs, repairs of every type.

Professor Chinweizu,
‘Reparations and a New Global Order: A Comparative Overview’,
Paper presented at the First Pan-African Conference on Reparations,
Abuja, Nogeria, 27 April 1993.

Although reparations for a survivor of violence or the family of victim may well be psychologically necessary, on an individual level, they are not sufficient because genuine resolution depends on how the individual personally works through the traumas of the past. Reparations, both material and the so-called symbolic, are useful markers in this process, but the lasting legacy of gross violations human rights does not simply vanish with time or when reparations are granted. Government strategies such as truth commissions can help to open the door for the possibility of the individual and the country to begin the process of working through a violent and conflicted history. Socio-economic development can help ease this process considerably—but it too is limited and intrinsically insufficient for addressing the plethora of personal injustice and psychological injury experienced after substantial loss.

This paper explores the interplay between these factors, and the contradictory and inherent difficulties of trying to make amends for past wrongs in post-apartheid South Africa. The competing and often diverging psychological needs of the individual and the society with regards to making reparations for gross violations of human rights are discussed. The paper begins by briefly outlining the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s mandate and policy recommendations with regards to reparations for survivors and families of victims of human rights abuses. Thereafter, some of the psychological benefits and double-binds of making reparations are outlined. Four suggestions are then made with regard to how the process of making reparations for essentially irreparable loss can be eased.

Full text of this paper (PDF, 16 pgs, 62 Kb)