Reparations over the past few decades have become integral in responding to mass victimisation and conflict in international law and transitional justice. Although the development of reparations in transitional justice has been framed around abusive authoritarian regimes and repairing the harm suffered by civilians, such as in Latin America, there has been contentious reparation rulings by regional human rights courts in situations of internal armed conflict by recognising perpetrators and ‘terrorists’ as victims and awarding them reparations. Complex identities are particularly acute in situations of internal armed conflict, where protracted internal violence between the state and organised non-state groups, due to the political narratives in legitimatising the violence and victimisation of each ‘side’. This paper examines the construction of complex identities in reparation mechanisms and the context of recognising victims and perpetrators in transitional justice processes.
This paper explores the approach to these issues in Colombia, Peru and Northern Ireland. The paper tries to reconcile the more subjective state perspective and political limits of transitional justice, to the objective stance of international fora and obligations on states to provide to reparations to a wider class of victims.
