Towards victim-centred transitional justice: Understanding the needs of families of the disappeared in postconflict Nepal

International Journal of Transitional Justice

Volumn 5, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 75-98

  Robins, Simon ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF YORK   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 82455256232     PISSN: 17527716     EISSN: 17527724     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/ijtj/ijq027     Document Type: Article

References (84)

1. This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/ G014299/1).
2. See, for example, Béatrice Pouligny, Bernard Doray and Jean-Clément Martin, 'Methodological and Ethical Problems: A Trans-Disciplinary Approach,' in After Mass Crime: Rebuilding States and Communities, ed. Béatrice Pouligny, Simon Chesterman and Albrecht Schnabel (Tokyo: UN University Press, 2007)
3. Marie Breen Smyth, Truth Recovery and Justice after Conflict: Managing Violent Pasts (London: Routledge, 2007)
4. Kieran McEvoy and Lorna McGregor, 'Transitional Justice from Below: An Agenda for Research, Policy and Praxis,' in Transitional Justice from Below: Grassroots Activism and the Struggle for Change, ed. Kevin McEvoy and Lorna McGregor (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2008).
5. Patricia Lundy and Mark McGovern, 'Whose Justice? Rethinking Transitional Justice from the Bottom Up,' Journal of Law and Society 35(2) (2008): 265-292
6. George A. Bonanno, Sandro Galea, Angela Bucciarelli and David Vlahov, 'What Predicts Psychological Resilience after Disaster? The Role of Demographics, Resources, and Life Stress,' Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 75(5) (2007): 671-682
7. Nora Sveaass and Marcia Castillo, 'From War Hero to Cripple: An Interview Study on Psychosocial Intervention and Social Reconstruction in Nicaragua,' Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 6(2) (2000): 113-133
8. Dale R. Hawley and Laura DeHaan, 'Toward a Definition of Family Resilience: Integrating Life-Span and Family Perspectives,' Family Process 35(3) (1996): 283-298.
9. Simon Robins, An Assessment of the Needs of Families of the Missing in Nepal (York: Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit, University of York, 2009)
10. Sarah Cullinan, Torture Survivors' Perceptions of Reparation (London: REDRESS, 2001), 19
11. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report (2003)
12. Raquel Aldana, 'A Victim-Centered Reflection on Truth Commissions and Prosecutions as a Response to Mass Atrocities,' Journal of Human Rights 5(1) (2006): 107-126
13. Sexual Assault Interagency Council, 'Victim-Centered System,' http://www.winonacountysaic. com/Victim.htm (accessed 15 November 2010).
14. Simon Robins, 'Transitional Justice as an Elite Discourse: Human Rights Practice between the Global and the Local in Postconflict Nepal' (paper presented at the annual International Studies Association convention, New Orleans, LA, 17 February 2010)
15. Louise Arbour, 'Economic and Social Justice for Societies in Transition,' New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 40(1) (2007): 1-27
16. With specific reference to Nepal.
17. see, Tafadzwa Pasipanodya, 'A Deeper Justice: Economic and Social Justice as Transitional Justice in Nepal,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 2(3) (2008): 378-397.
18. Daniel Aguirre and Irene Pietropaoli, 'Gender Equality, Development and Transitional Justice: The Case of Nepal,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 2(3) (2008): 356-377.
19. See also, Zinaida Miller, 'Effects of Invisibility: In Search of the "Economic" in Transitional Justice,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 2(3) (2008): 266-291.
20. Malvern Lumsden, 'Breaking the Cycle of Violence: Three Zones of Social Reconstruction in War-Traumatized Societies,' Journal of Peace Research 34(4) (1997): 377-383.
21. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Working with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: A Handbook for NGOs (2006).
22. See, for example, Gregory J. Quirk and Leonel Casco, 'Stress Disorders of Families of the Disappeared: A Controlled Study in Honduras,' Social Science and Medicine 39(12) (2004): 1675-1679.
23. Pau Pérez-Sales, Teresa Durán-Pérez and Roberta Bacic Herzfeld, 'Long-Term Psychosocial Consequences in First-Degree Relatives of People Detained - Disappeared or Executed for Political Reasons in Chile: A Study in Mapuce and Non-Mapuce Persons,' Psicothema 12(suppl.) (2000): 109-116.
24. See, for example, Derek Summerfield, 'Cross Cultural Perspectives on the Medicalisation of Human Suffering,' in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Issues and Controversies, ed. Gerald M. Rosen (New York: John Wiley, 2004)
25. Gillian Mezey and Ian Robbins, 'Usefulness and Validity of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a Psychiatric Category,' British Medical Journal 323 (2001): 561-563.
26. Sebastian von Peter, 'The Experience of "Mental Trauma" and Its Transcultural Application,' Transcultural Psychiatry 45(4) (2008): 639-651.
27. Margriet Blaauw and Virpi Lähteenmäki, '"Denial and Silence" or "Acknowledgement and Disclosure,"' International Review of the Red Cross 84(848) (2002): 767-783.
28. Pauline Boss, Loss, Trauma and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006).
29. Simon Robins, 'Ambiguous Loss in a Non-Western Context: Families of the Disappeared in Postconflict Nepal,' Family Relations 59(3) (2010): 253-268.
30. Shari Eppel, 'Reburial Ceremonies for Health and Healing after State Terror in Zimbabwe,' Lancet 360(9336) (2002): 869-870.
31. Phuong Pham and Patrick Vinck, 'Empirical Research and the Development and Assessment of Transitional Justice Mechanisms,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 1(2) (2007): 231-248.
32. See the numerous surveys conducted by the Human Rights Center and the International Center for Transitional Justice.
33. See also, Miklos Biro, Dean Adjukovic, Dinka Corkalo, Dina Djipa, Petar Milin and Harvey M. Weinstein, 'Attitudes Toward Justice and Social Reconstruction in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia,' in My Neighbour, My Enemy: Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Ethnic Cleansing, ed. Eric Stover and Harvey M. Weinstein (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
34. Patrick Vinck and Phuong Pham, 'Outreach Evaluation: The International Criminal Court in the Central African Republic,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 4(3) (2010): 421-442.
35. Patrick Vinck, Phuong Pham, Suliman Baldo and Rachel Shigekane, Living with Fear: A Population-Based Survey on Attitudes about Peace, Justice and Social Reconstruction in Eastern DRC (Berkeley, CA: Human Rights Center, 2008), 1.
36. International Centre for Transitional Justice and Advocacy Forum, Nepali Voices: Perceptions of Truth, Justice, Reconciliation, Reparations and the Transition in Nepal (March 2008).
37. Simon Robins, 'Whose Voices? Understanding Victims' Needs in Transition,' Journal of Human Rights Practice 1(2) (2009): 320-331.
38. Priscilla B. Hayner, Unspeakable Truths: Transitional Justice and the Challenge of Truth Commissions, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2010).
39. For an extreme example of this, see, Eric Stover and Rachel Shigekane, 'The Missing in the Aftermath of War: When Do the Needs of Victims' Families and International War Crimes Tribunals Clash?' International Review of the Red Cross 84(848) (2002): 845-865
40. These processes remain largely undocumented, at least in the academic literature. They include the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus, http://www.cmp-cyprus.org (accessed 15 November 2010
41. Bosnian Working Group on Persons Unaccounted for Following the Conflict,http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/bosnia-herzegovina-news-221105 (accessed 15 November 2010)
42. Kosovo Working Group on Missing Persons, http://www.icrc.org/web/ eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/missing-news-061005 (accessed 15 November 2010).
43. UN Human Rights Council, 'Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances,' UN Doc. A/HRC/10/9 (25 February 2009).
44. UN Development Programme, Nepal Human Development Report 2009: State Transformation and Human Development (2009)
45. Susan Hangen, Creating a 'New Nepal': The Ethnic Dimension (Washington, DC: East-West Center, 2008)
46. Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), Human Rights Yearbook 2007 (2007)
47. Human Rights Watch, Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Civilians Struggle to Survive in Nepal's Civil War (October 2004)
48. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Missing Persons in Nepal: The Right to Know (2008)
49. According to international human rights law definitions, only forces linked to a state can perpetrate disappearance (although states are obliged to investigate those perpetrated by nonstate actors). Here, the term 'disappearance' will also include cases of abduction perpetrated by nonstate parties to the conflict in Nepal, notably the CPN-M.
50. See, for example, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nepal, Report of Investigation into Arbitrary Detention, Torture and Disappearances at Maharajgunj RNA Barracks, Kathmandu, in 2003-2004 (2006)
51. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nepal, Report on Disappearances in Bardiya (2008)
52. Human Rights Watch and Advocacy Forum, Waiting for Justice: Unpunished Crimes from Nepal's Armed Conflict (2008)
53. Simon Robins, 'A Participatory Approach to Ethnographic Research with Victims of Gross Human Rights Violations: Studying Families of the Disappeared in Postconflict Nepal,' in Participatory Research Methodologies in Development and Post Disaster/Conflict Reconstruction, ed. Alphaslan Özerdem and Richard Bowd (London: Ashgate, 2010).
54. This was published by the ICRC in English and Nepali. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Families of Missing Persons in Nepal: A Study of Their Needs (2009).
55. Whilst this is an assumption made when developing the sampling strategy, it is also clearly demonstrated in the data
56. Nepal's plains contain the bulk of the Madeshi population, persons of Indian origin assumed to be more recent migrants to Nepal, as well as indigenous groups, such as the Tharu. Hill populations are a mix of caste Hindus and indigenous groups. Districts were selected to ensure that urban areas were included, notably Kathmandu, and that rural victims were appropriately represented. The thinly populated mountains were far less affected by the conflict and were excluded from this study.
57. The 10 districts visited are Banke, Bardiya, Bhaktapur, Dhading, Dhanusa, Gorkha, Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Rolpa and Siraha
58. Personal interview, G.P., sister-in-law of a disappeared man, Rolpa, Nepal, 11 June 2008
59. Focus group interview, Gorkha, Nepal, 16 June 2008
60. Focus group interview, Kathmandu, Nepal, 3 September 2008
61. Personal interview, S.C., mother of a disappeared girl, Bardiya, Nepal, 17 July 2008.
62. Personal interview, R.B.D., brother of a disappeared man, Gorkha, Nepal, 18 June 2008.
63. Personal interview, R.B.D., brother of a disappeared man, Gorkha, Nepal, 18 June 2008.
64. Personal interview, S.A., wife of a disappeared man, Gorkha, Nepal, 17 June 2008.
65. Personal interview, S.B., wife of a disappeared man, Kathmandu, Nepal, 26 August 2008.
66. Focus group interview, Katarniya, Bardiya, Nepal, 30 July 2008
67. Personal interview, S.T., wife of a disappeared man, Dhading, Nepal, 21 August 2008
68. Personal interview, S.Y., wife of a disappeared man, Siraha, Nepal, 17 September 2008.
69. Personal interview, K.D., mother of two disappeared men, Bardiya, Nepal, 29 July 2008.
70. Personal interview, R.S.D., wife of a disappeared man, Siraha, Nepal, 16 September 2008.
71. Personal interview, K.K., brother of a disappeared man, Gorkha, Nepal, 17 June 2008.
72. Personal interview, R.A., wife of a disappeared man, Dhading, Nepal, 21 August 2008.
73. Personal interview, R.B.D., brother of a disappeared man, Gorkha, Nepal, 18 June 2008.
74. Pablo de Greiff, 'Justice and Reparations,' in The Handbook of Reparations, ed. Pablo de Greiff (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
75. Personal interview, B.P., brother of a disappeared man, Siraha, Nepal, 17 September 2008.
76. Personal interview, K.B.K., brother of a disappeared man, Gorkha, Nepal, 16 June 2008.
77. Follow-up studies indicate that by 2010 the vast majority of families, but not all, had received these payments
78. See, for example, Richard Goldstone, 'Peace versus Justice,' Nevada Law Journal 6(2) (2005): 421-424
79. Informal Sector Service Centre, Impaired Accountability: State of Disappearance in Nepal (2008)
80. Andrew Rigby, Justice and Reconciliation: After the Violence (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001)
81. International Committee of the Red Cross, Farming through Conflict (2007)
82. A concept raised in Vasuki Nesiah, 'Discussion Lines on Gender and Transitional Justice: An Introductory Essay Reflecting on the ICTJ Bellagio Workshop on Gender and Transitional Justice,' Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 15(3) (2002): 799-812
83. Bishnu Raj Upreti, 'Social Exclusion and Conflict,' in The Inclusive State: Reflections on Reinventing Nepal, ed. Anand Aditya (Kathmandu: SAP, 2007)
84. See, for example, Lisa J. Laplante, 'Transitional Justice and Peace Building: Diagnosing and Addressing the Socioeconomic Roots of Violence through a Human Rights Framework,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 2(3) (2008): 331-355.