What do Survivors Want? A Victim-Centred Approach to Justice for Conflict Related Human Rights Abuses.
- Project status
- Ongoing
- Departments
- International
Abstract
When actors such as the UN, NGOs and transitional justice practitioners argue for an end to impunity for war crimes and justice for victim/survivors of such atrocities, the mechanisms for delivering justice (for instance prosecutions, truth commissions) are premised on fixed assumptions of what victim/survivors want and need. Consequently, the person defining justice is never the victim/survivor of the violence. This project aims to develop a victim-centred approach to justice, through including and strengthening the voice of victim/survivors in the definition of justice and the production of justice-related policies. To achieve this, the project will explore perspectives on justice from victim/survivors in the Colombian conflict. Paying close attention to intergenerational aspects and how other injustices (displacement, lack of access to basic services as a result of conflict etc.) shape wants and needs, the project will investigate the dissonance between what victims/survivors want and what current justice policies offer.
Research team
Dr Helen Louise Turton, University of Sheffield; Dr Claudia Tovar Guerra, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia