Must Our Communities Bleed to Receive Social Services? Development projects and collective reparations schemes in colombia

Abstract

The provision of social services in protracted conflicts, such as the Colombian conflict, is scarce and sometimes non-existent. Collective reparations are normally composed of restitution, compensation, rehabilitation and guarantees of no repetition. They constitute what normally would encompass development projects and can provide basic social services in contexts of peace and stability with additional symbolic and psychosocial elements. After more than five decades of conflict in Colombia, it seems that significant political will for transitional justice programmesand in particular, reparations programmes-has emerged with the 2010 election of President Juan Manuel Santos and the ratification of the 2011 Victim's Law. In 2007, a pilot project of collective reparations programmes was initiated with the support of international development agencies. This paper uses data collected from these pilot projects to demonstrate the complexity of introducing development projects as a form of reparations in conflict-affected communities. It also questions whether it is good policy to require communities to have to 'bleed first' to receive basic social services under the auspices of collective reparations and explores the possible problems involved in implementing collective reparations programmes without a comprehensive development policy in post-conflict contexts.

Trapped between Promise and Reality in Colombia's Victims' Law: Reflections on Reparations, Development and Social Justice

“…Humanitarian assistance, for example, should consist of periodic monetary transfers and survivors' prioritisation in accessing social services. The VU however lacks the authority and resources to manage state institutions such as the Ministries of Health and Education, which are often badly represented in rural isolated locations such as Chibolo and lack effectiveness in providing the social services promised (Firchow, ; Portilla Benavides and Correa, ; Pham et al, ). Therefore, humanitarian assistance is limited to a few monetary transactions which are not sufficient to create minimum living conditions.…”

“…The villagers' desire for a dignified life dovetails with the needs indicated by other survivors in Colombia, many of whom live in regions with little or no state presence (Firchow, ; Rettberg, ). As explained above, the Victims' Law in theory responds to survivors' more general need for dignified living conditions, by combining reparations with measures of humanitarian assistance and development (Dixon, ).…”

“…Nevertheless, she insisted that in spite of victims' ‘reinforced right to access education’, primary and secondary education for children is a basic right, which cannot be part of reparations (interview, Iris Marín, 2016). But in spite of nationwide free education, the quality of and access to primary education in Colombia are of a low standard, especially in the areas affected by conflict (Firchow, ; Rettberg, ).The same goes for other public services such as health care. As described above, it is exactly the lack of respect for these basic rights that makes people feel they are treated as second‐class citizens.…”

Transformative Justice, Reparations and Transatlantic Slavery

“…Indeed, the present-day and future justice aspects of these harms are, in some ways, a more compelling moral argument for redress than addressing historical injustice (Miller, 2007: 146-147;Ivison, 2008: 522). Basing claims on present-day and future justice prevents the privileging of one victimised or disadvantaged group over another (see, for example, Firchow, 2013).…”

From Transitional to Transformative Justice: A New Agenda for Practice

“…In Colombia, this tension has been encapsulated as, 'Must our communities bleed to receive social services?' 30 Pamina Firchow argues that in the Colombian case, short-term, reparative project funding occurred in the absence of a comprehensive development policy.…”