‘Reparation for Victims of Mass Atrocities: Reflections on Key Challenges’

Abstract: 
While there is broad consensus that victims of mass atrocities have a right to reparation for harm suffered, the effective implementation of that right is a promise as yet largely unfulfilled. This talk will consider some of the key challenges, within and outside domestic reparation programmes in countries undergoing transitions, that need to be surpassed for the effective realisation of this right. 

Bio:
Clara Sandoval is a qualified lawyer and professor at the School of Law and Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex. She is one of the founding members of the Essex Transitional Justice Network. She is also part of the teaching faculty at the Geneva Academy where she is responsible for one of the core module of the Master in Transitional Justice.
Great part of Clara's work is focused on reparation for victims of mass attrocities. She has written extensively on these issues and has also practical experience either litigating cases related to reparation or advising governments, IGO's or NGOs on the matter. Clara has also advised the International Criminal Court on reparation. 
She is currently involved in two research projects looking at reparations and some of the challenges she will talk about: the ESRC funded Human Rights Law Implementation Project which looks at the factors that hinder or enable implementation of reparation orders/recommendations (in individual cases/petitions/communications) of regional systems and UN treaty bodies. Colombia and Guatemala are included in this project and the AHRC funded project Reparations, Responsibility and Victimhood in Transitional Justice which is looking at the domestic reparation programmes in Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, Nepal, Northern Ireland and Uganda.