Truth with consequences: Justice and reparations in post-truth commission Peru

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 29, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 228-250

  Laplante, Lisa J ^a   Theidon, Kimberly ^a,b  

^a Praxis Institute for Social Justice   (Peru)

^b HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVIL SOCIETY; HUMAN RIGHTS; INSTITUTIONAL REFORM; NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION; SOCIAL JUSTICE;

PERU; SOUTH AMERICA;

EID: 34047138044     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2007.0009     Document Type: Article

References (110)

1. Interview with Justiniana Huamán (name changed to protect person), 48 years old, campesina community of Carhuahuarán, Ayacucho, in Peru (2002).
2. The term "victim" and the elaboration of categories of victimization figure prominently in the work of truth commissions. In light of our work in Peru, we are more comfortable with the hyphenate "victim-survivor" for several reasons. First, not all people with whom we have spoken identify as victims in their daily lives. Indeed, they may reject the term for the helplessness it implies, choosing to distance themselves from such an image. In Peru, for instance, those who suffered human rights violations use the term "afectados" (affected). Second, one aspect of our ongoing research focuses on the ways in which people organize to demand reparations, and how this political activism leads to new perceptions of citizenship and agency. Finally, we are influenced by the work of Mahmood Mamdani, and his assertion that people must move beyond dichotomized identities as one way of searching for new forms of justice and coexistence following atrocity. See Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda (2002).
3. Comparative Peace Processes in Latin America 447 (Cynthia Arnson ed., 1999);
4. Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes xix (Neil J. Kritz ed., 1995).
5. Pablo de Greif, Introduction to the Handbook of Reparations 1 (Pablo ed Greif, ed., 2006).
6. Comisión de Verdad y Reconciliatión, Final Report (2003), available at http://www.cverdad.org.pe/ [hereinafter CVR]
7. Id.
8. Martha Minow, The Hope for Healing. What Can Truth Commissions Do?, in Truth V. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions 235, 241 (Robert I. Rotberg & Dennis Thompson eds.,2000).
9. Lisa J. Laplante, On the Indivisibility of Rights: Truth Commissions, Reparations and the Right to Development, Yale Hum. Rts. J. & Dev. L. J. (forthcoming May 2007).
10. Sharon F. Lean, Is Truth Enough? Reparations and Reconciliation in Latin America, in Politics and the Past: On Repairing Historical Injustices 169, 185 (John Torpey ed., 2003).
11. Ernesto García Calderón, High Anxiety in the Andes: Peru's Decade of Living Dangerously, 12 J. of Democracy 46 (2001).
12. Carlos Ivan DeGregori, Qué Difícil es ser Dios: Ideología y. Violencia Política en Sendero Luminoso (1990);
13. Carlos Ivan DeGregori, el Surgiento de Sendero Luminoso: Ayacucho 1969-1979 (1990);
14. Shinning Path of Peru (David Scott Palmer ed., 2d ed. 1994).
15. Shinning and other Paths: War and Society in Peru, 1980-1995, at 378(Steve J. Stern ed., 1998).
16. Sendero Luminoso has been reduced to isolated groups largely confined to the jungle region of Ayacucho and the Huallaga Valley.
17. Decreto Supremo que prorroga encargo específfico de la Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación, No. 063-2003-PCM, available at http://www.cverdad.org.pe/lacomision/cnormas/normas05.php;
18. on public hearings see Audencias publícas, official webpage of the CVR, available at http://www.cverdad.org.pe/apublicas/audiencias/ index.php;
19. on number of pages see Nuestro labor, official webpage of the CVR, available at http://www.cverdad.org.pe/lacomision/nlabor/index.php.
20. CVR, supra note 5, General Conclusions ¶ 2.
21. Id.
22. General Conclusions 13, Hatun Willakuy, Version Abreviada del Informe Final de la Commision de la Verdad y Reconciliacion 19 (2004). The TRC includes in this percentage the army, policy, and self defense committees.
23. CVR, supra note 5, General Conclusions 5-7.
24. Miryam Rivera, Ana Reyes & Rosa Maria Cueto, Ayacucho: personas en una Guerra. Apuntes desde la Salud Mental (Peru 2003) (working document on file with authors).
25. CVR, supra note 5, General Conclusions at ¶ ¶ 160-61.
26. Id. ¶ 162 (authors translation of the original Spanish language text).
27. CVR, supra note 5, Vol. IX, Programa Integral de Reparaciones, ch. 2.
28. Id. 2.2.3 Los programas del plan integral de reparaciones, at 159-202.
29. Id. 2.2.1 Fundamentacion, at 139-44.
30. Id. 2.2.2.3 Enfoques Transversales, at 156-58.
31. Ruti G. Teitel, Transitional Justice Genealogy, 16 Harv. Hum. Rts. J. 69 (2003).
32. For general discussion see Princilla B. Hayner, Upspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity 4 (2001)
33. Ruti G. Teitel, Transitional Justice 18-26 (2000).
34. Kimberly Theidon, Entre Prójmos: El Conflicto Armado Interno y de la Reconciliación en el Perú (2004).
35. Martha Minow, Between Vengance and Forgiveness: Facing History After Genocide and Mass Violence 9 (1998).
36. John Torpey, Introduction to Politics and the Past, supra note 9, at 9.
37. Nancy L. Rosenblum, Justice and the Experience of Injustice, in Breaking the Cycle of Hatred: Memory, Law, and Repair 95 (Martha Minow, ed., 2002).
38. For general discussion, see HAYNER, supra note 26.
39. For a comparative look, see also Joanna R. Quinn & Mark Freeman, Lessons Learned: Practical Lessons Gleaned from Iside the Truth Commissions of Guatemala and South Africa, 25 Hum. RTs. Q. 1117 (2003);
40. Audrey R. Chapman & Patrick Ball, The Truth of Truth Commissons: Comparative Lessons from Haiti, South Africa, and Guatemala, 23 Hum. rts. Q. 1(2001).
41. For further discussion of how Peru's truth commission was exceptional in forgoing amnesty for criminal investigations, see Lisa J. Laplante, Entwined Paths to Justice: The Inter-American Human Rights System and the Peruvian Truth Commission, in Paths to International Justice (forthcoming).
42. Sandra Young, Narrative and Healing in the Hearings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 27 Biography 145 (2004).
43. Brandon Hamber & Richard Wilson, Symbolic Closure Through Memory, Reparation and Revenge in Post-Conflict Societies, 1 J. Hum. rts. 35 (2002).
44. Brandon Hamber, The Need for a Survivor-Centered Approach to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 9 Community Mediation Update, ¶ 3 (1996), available at http://www.csvr.org.za/articles/artrcdrt.htm.
45. Brandon Hamber, Dealing with the Past and the Psychology of Reconciliation, Public address presented at the 4th International Symposium "Contributions of Psychology to Peace," ¶ 3 (27 June 1995), available at www.csvr.org/org/articles/artrcdrt.htm.
46. Id. ¶ 7.
47. Theidon, supra note 28.
48. CVR, supra note 5, General Conclusions ¶ ¶ 5-7.
49. Interview with Rocio Paz, Director of Training, Associacion Pro Derecho Humanos, Lima, Peru (23 May 2005) (transcript on file with authors).
50. Decreto Supremo No. 065-2001 -PCM, §6(f)(4 June 2001).
51. Interview with Gisele Ortiz, Petitioner before Inter-American Court of Human Rights and family of victim in the Cantuta Case, Lima, Peru (8 June 2005) (transcript on file with author).
52. See Mark J. Osiel, Making Public Memory, Publicly, in Human Rights in Political Transitions: Gettysburg to Bosnia 242 (Carla Hesse & Robert Post eds., 1999).
53. Interview with Rocio Paz, supra note 41.
54. Author Theidon was struck by this theme among staff of the TRC in the Ayacucho office. Although many of the staff members were from Ayacucho and had lived there during the internal armed conflict, it was common to hear them state that prior to their work with the TRC, they had no idea of the magnitude of the violence and loss of life. Author's interviews.
55. Study involved thirteen men and seven women. Those interviewed represented the range of victims: displaced persons, families of the disappeared, tortured and assassinated, those unjustly imprisoned, and those incapacitated as a result of the conflict. The perpetrators of these violations broke down to approximately 50 percent from the state and 50 percent from subversive groups. Those interviewed included professionals, peasants, clergy, police, government officials, and those with various political affiliations including oppositional parties. Results of the study also appear as part of the TRCs impact assessment, see CVR supra note 5, Public Hearings, available at http://www.cverdad.org.pe/apublicas/audiencias/index.php.
56. Interview with male, 41, Ayacucho, family of disappeared and affected community leader (4 Mar. 2003) (translation by author).
57. Interview with female, 31, Lima, family of extrajudicially killed (8 Jan. 2003) (translation by author).
58. Interview with female, 50, Ayacucho, family of disappeared (5 Mar. 2003).
59. Lisa LaPlante, El Impacto de las Audiencias Públicas en los Participants, available at http://www.cverdad.org.pe/apublicas/ audiencias/impacto.php.
60. Id.
61. Hamber, supra note 37, ¶ 24.
62. Judith Herman, Trauma and Recovery 240 (1992).
63. Brandon Hamber, Reparations as Symbol: Narratives of Resistance, Reticence and Possibility in South Africa, paper presented at the Reparations: An Interdisciplinary Examination of Some Philosophical Issues, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada (6-8 Feb. 2004), available at http://www.brandonhamber.com/talks2.htm#2004.
64. In the region of Ayacucho, the highlands of Peru where the greatest violence occurred, there are reportedly three communities inhabited mostly by older woman left widowed or childless by the conflict who held this belief and currently express outright rejection of the TRC due to the failure to meet this promise. This belief was common throughout rural areas, particularly with older women who tend to be monolingual Quechua speakers. Diffusion regarding the TRC was insufficient in rural areas, and this was compounded by a misinformation campaign launched by opponents of the Commission.
65. See The Provocations of Amnesty: Memory, Justice and Impunity (Charles Villa-Vicencio & Erik Doxtader eds., 2003).
66. Roy Brooks, Reflections on Reparations, in Politics and the Past, supra note 9, at 109.
67. Theidon, supra note 17;
68. Kimberly Theidon, Justice in Transition: The Micropolitics of Reconciliation in Post-War Peru, 50 J. Conflict Resol. 433 (2006).
69. Lisa J. Laplante, Entwined Paths to Justice: The Inter-American Human Rights System and the Peruvian Truth Commission, in Paths to International Justice: Social and Cultural Perspectives (Maria Dembour & Tobias Kelly eds., forthcoming 2007).
70. Carlos Santiago Nino, Radical Evil on Trial (1996);
71. Diane Orentlicher, Settling Accounts: The Duty to Prosecute Human Rights Violations of a Prior Regime, in Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes (Neil Kritz ed., 1995);
72. Juan E. Méndez, Accountability for Past Abuses, 19 Hum. Rts. Q. 255 (1997).
73. See Osiel, supra note 44, at 248.
74. [I]t is precisely the concern of transitional justice that these regular institutions cannot yet be taken for granted; under the prior regime, the very foundation of law and of public institutions were perverted. A new culture of rights and equal citizenship must still be ensued. Alex Boraine, The Moral Foundation of the South African TRC: Truth as Acknowledgment and Justice as Recognition, in Truth v. Justice, supra note 7, at 138.
75. Minow, The Hope for Healing, supra note 7, at 238.
76. Laplante, Entwined Paths to Justice, supra note 60.
77. Defensoría del Pueblo, A Dos Años de la Comision de la Verdad y Reconciliación: Informe Defensorial No. 97, at 49-52 (2005), available at http://www.ombudsman.gob.pe/modules/Downloads/ informes/defensoriales/informe_97.pdf.
78. Id. at 149-70.
79. Interview by Germán Vargas Farías with Cristina Olazábal, Fiscal Especial de Derechos Humanos de Ayacuchoo,in Ayacucho, Peru (May 2005), available at http://www.justiciaviva.org.pe/ nuevos/2005/entrevista_olazabal.doc.
80. Defensoría del Pueblo, supra note 66, at 57.
81. Walter Chiara & Lisa J. Laplante, Prosecutors in Peru. Testing the Limits of Impunity, the reparation Report 4 (2004), available at www.redress.org/reports/april2004.pdf.
82. Pablo de Greiff, Executive Summary: The Role of Reparations in Transition to Democracy, Achieving Global Justice Seminar at the Carnegie Council (5 June 2004), available at http://www.cceia.org/ resources_papers/4980.html._res/id=sa_File1/ 4980_Greiff_Reparations_and_Democracy.pdf.
83. Pablo de Greiff, Addressing the Past: Reparations for Gross Human Rights Abuses, presentation at Repairing the Past: Confronting the Legacies of Slavery, Genocide, & Caste, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (27-29 Oct. 2005), available at http://www.yale.edu/glc/justice/ greiff.pdf (to be published in Rule of Law and Conflict Management: Towards Security, Development and Human Rights (Agnes Hurwitz ed. forthecoming).
84. See Lisa J. Laplante, Bringing Effective Remedies Home: The Inter-American Human Rights System Reparations and the Duty of Prevention, 22 Neth. Hum. Rts. Q. 347 (2004).
85. Brian Walsh, Resolving the Human Rights Violations of a Previous Regime, 158 World Aff. 118 (1996).
86. Patricia E. Standaert, Other International Issues: The Friendly Settlement of Human Rights Abuses in the Americas, 9 Duke J. Comp. & Int'l L. 537 (1999).
87. See Roman David & Susanne Choi Yuk-ping, Victims on Transitional Justice: Lessons from the Reparation of Human Rights Abuses in the Czech Republic, 27 Hum. Rts. Q. 430-31 (2005).
88. See Lisa J. Laplante & Roxana Castellon, Expanding the Definition of the Right to Mental Health: Attending To Victims of Political Violence and Armed Conflict in Their Communities Of Origin, 2 Essex Rev. Hum. Rts. 52 (2005).
89. Elazar Barkan, The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices (2000).
90. Stef Vandeginste, Reparations, in Reconciliation After Violent Conflict: A Handbook 145 (International Institute for Democracy & Electoral Assistance eds., 2003).
91. Elazar Barkan, Restitution and Amending Historical Injustices in International Morality, in Politics and the Past, supra note 9, at 93.
92. Boraine, supra note 63, at 138.
93. Torpey, supra note 30, at 5.
94. Lisa J. Laplante, Reparations for Justice, 40 Latinamericapress 3-4 (17 Dec. 2003), available at http://www.latinamericapress.org.
95. Plan Integral de Reparaciones: Programación Multiannual 2005-2006, Decreto Supremo No. 047-2005-PCM (6 July 2005).
96. Aprueban marco programático de la acción del Estado en materia de paz, reparación y reconciliación nacional, Decreto Supremo No. 062-2004-PCM (27 Aug. 2004).
97. Ley que crea el Programa Integral de Reparaciones - PIR, LA LEY No. 28592 (29 July 2005).
98. Nelson Shack Yalta, Avanzando hacia la Cuantificación del Gasto público en Materia de Reparaciones, Recopilacion de Instrumentos Legales Sobre la Implementatacion de Recommendaciones de la Comision de la Verdad y Reconciliacion 57 (2006), available at http://www.regionhuanuco.gob.pe/gr/grds/PIRAPCI/PIRES%20FINAL.pdf.
99. Un Poco Tarde: Reglamentan Fondos para FFAA y PNP, CORREO (3 May 2005), available at http://www.correoperu.com.pe/ paginasta.php?nota_id=2592&seccion_nota=1.
100. Naomi Roht-Arrianza, Reparations in the Aftermath of Repression and Mass Violence, in My Neighbor, My Enemy: Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity (Eric Stover & Harvey M. Weinstein eds., 2004).
101. Elizabeth Kiss, Moral Ambition Within and Beyond Political Constraints: Reflections on Restorative Justice, in Truth v. Justice, supra note 7, at 71.
102. Minow, The Hope for Healing, supra note 7, at 236.
103. Some believe social transformation - building the rule of law, reconciliation and the overall process of reform - are strengthened by, if not perhaps impossible without, reparations. Robert I. Rotberg, Truth Commissions and the Provision of Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation, in Truth v. Justice, supra note 7, at 12;
104. see also Minow, The Hope for Healing, supra note 7, at 252.
105. Salomon Lerner, Former President of the TRC, (28 Aug. 2003).
106. Jeffrey K. Olick & Brenda Coughlin, The Politics of Regret: Analytical Frames, in Politics and the Past, supra note 9, at 44.
107. Brooks, supra note 58, at 103.
108. Lean, supra note 9, at 171.
109. Brandon Hamber, Narrowing the Micro and Macro: A Psychological Perspective on Reparations in Societies in Transition, in The Handbook of Reparations, supra note 4, at 566.
110. Michael Ignatieff, Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry (2003).