The Handbook of Reparations

Book excerpt: This Handbook is provides a broad range of essential information about past experiences with massive reparations programs as well as normative guidance for future practice. It examines in detail reparations programs in different parts of the world; includes thematic papers on topics that frequently come about in the design and implementation of reparations programs; and, finally, reproduces key documents on reparations, including national legislation. In addition to providing a wealth of factual information about a wide range of reparations programs (some of them previously unexamined), the thematic papers break new ground, tackling issues that have not been sufficiently addressed (if at all) in the literature, including the very notion of justice in reparations for the massive cases, the relationship between material compensation and other symbolic measures of reparations, and the complicated set of questions around how to provide reparations to victims of sexual violence. Finally, the book makes available fundamental documents on reparations, including national legislation. These documents - which are either difficult to find or have never been translated into English before - are both directly relevant to the case studies and the thematic papers, and illuminating to those thinking prospectively about the design and implementation of reparations programs.