Complexities in Repair for Harm: Modeling the Multi-Dimensionality of Reparations for Mass Human Rights Violations

Abstract:  Human rights violations are often the result of historical, layered and interacting forces. As a result, reparations efforts created to address them are difficult to track and even more difficult to design without compromising justice, inciting contentions, and creating inequities. Since reparations efforts are often characterized by domestic and international features, evaluating the causes and consequences of them is difficult. This study focuses on the importance of mapping characteristics of reparations like portfolios, networks, venues, and mechanisms globally and domestically in order to better identify, evaluate, and design reparations efforts for mass human rights violations in international relations and the U.S.