From Victimhood to Political Protagonism: Victim Groups and Associations in the Process of Dealing with a Violent Past

Straßner, Veit

doi:10.1007/978-90-6704-912-2_20

Cited by 22 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Yet it is the international understanding of victims' roles that has changed most dramatically in the past century. It was especially the new regime of human rights in the late 1970s and later humanitarian intervention of the 1990s that placed victims as important beneficiaries of international criminal justice measures, which were aimed at reconciliation and thus peace (Bonacker and Buckley-Zistel 2013;Strassner 2013). However, victims were initially treated as secondary to legal and forensics processes and integrated only as auxiliary providers of information regarding the circumstances of their victimization, i.e., the original act of harm, in order to make a legal case to prosecute perpetrators.…”

Section: Witnesses Of Crimes and Universal Moral Beaconsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roles of Victims in Peacebuilding

Barton-Hronešová

2022

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies

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Section: Witnesses Of Crimes and Universal Moral Beaconsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roles of Victims in Peacebuilding

Barton-Hronešová

2022

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies

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“…Victims are at best consultees and witnesses, not decision makers, 2 and therefore their ownership over these processes remains limited. The actual and potential participation of victims and their organisations in TJ procedures remains little explored (Strassner 2013;de Waardt 2016).…”

Section: Victim-centred Transitional Justice: Participation Ownership and Citizenshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In spite of its progressive framework for promoting victim participation, and the efforts taken by public servants and victim leaders to ensure the widest 'effective participation' of victims, this examination shows it has been complicated to explore the possibilities of victim organisations' socio-political engagement to foster localised approaches to TJ. 7 Some scholars have noted that few studies deal with grassroots activists, such as organised victims of human rights violations (McEvoy and McGregor 2008), while the political participation of victim organisations in TJ procedures and their potential intermediary role is also little explored (Strassner 2013;de Waardt 2016). Gready and Robins (2017) argue that especially victim organisations 'represent a mobilisation of those affected by violations, able to act locally and use a range of repertoires of action, but also engage with a formal TJ process and NGOs' (Gready and Robins 2017: 964).…”

Section: The Challenges Facing Victims' Political Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Victims’ Mere Presence: An Empirical Analysis of Victim Participation in Transitional Justice in Colombia

Waardt

Weber

2019

Journal of Human Rights Practice

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Whereas victims' rights and demands have gained attention in practice and scholarship of transitional justice (TJ), victims are at best consultees and witnesses, not decision makers. Victims' participation as political actors, and the impact of socio-political participation on survivors is still an under-researched area in TJ. This article provides an analysis of how victims' participation is given shape in the everyday functioning of Colombia's Victims' Law. This law offers an excellent case to examine this, since it provides an ongoing and ambitious TJ mechanism with a detailed framework for participation. This allows for a better understanding of this phenomenon in practice, beyond the understanding of victim-centred justice as the mere presence of victims. This article critically engages with victim-centred TJ theories which are based on long-held assumptions of how participation will lead to ownership and citizenship. It moreover explores the impact that participation throughout the different phases of non-judicial TJ procedures has on victims. It asks whether their engagement means that TJ processes indeed respond better to victims' needs, whether victims feel a greater ownership of these processes as a result, and whether victims even want to participate. It concludes by reflecting on the implications for victim-centred TJ, by explaining that participation should privilege genuinely participatory processes which take survivors and their agency as 2 a starting point. This requires recognising and building upon victims' pre-existent internal organisational and decision-making processes and timeframes, to create a more horizontal way of relating.

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Roles of Victims in Peacebuilding

Barton-Hronešová

2020

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies

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From Victimhood to Political Protagonism: Victim Groups and Associations in the Process of Dealing with a Violent Past

Cited by 22 publications

References 5 publications

Roles of Victims in Peacebuilding

Roles of Victims in Peacebuilding

Beyond Victims’ Mere Presence: An Empirical Analysis of Victim Participation in Transitional Justice in Colombia

Roles of Victims in Peacebuilding

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