3 Rehabilitation in transitional justice societies – Peru, South Africa Dr Lutz Oette (REDRESS) introduced the workshop noting that there has been very little focus on rehabilitation in transitional justice processes in international discussion, but that rehabilitation has much to contribute. In the context of transitional justice societies, rehabilitation needs to be considered in the immediate phase as well as from a long-term perspective. Dr Oette gave an overview of the challenges to rehabilitation in Chile, citing it as an experimental model in which a small team of health professionals trained others to provide services. However, in terms of accessibility there were particular challenges — only 18% of those registered actually had effective access to rehabilitation services, and it took more than 20 years to have permanent staff and geographical coverage. In addition, a lack of information about the programme meant many victims trusted private rehabilitation services more than those within the state system. In terms of appropriateness, there was a lack of integration and holistic approach in the programmes. However, with time the system has experienced a degree of stability and professionalism, and state-run services have worked more closely with NGOs. In transitional justice societies, there may also be the question of accessibility of rehabilitation services to exiled nationals. In Chile, REDRESS is involved in a case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that considers whether exiles should be entitled to benefit from state-run rehabilitation programmes.2 Juana Luisa Lloret de Fernández (Centro de Atención Psicosocial, Peru) spoke about collective reparations in the context of Peru, where the Truth and Reconciliation Commission established a number of initiatives to seek reparations for victims of the armed conflict. The state created a high-level multi-sectorial commission to design, implement and supervise reparation policies, and the Integral Reparations Plan (IRP) was adopted in 2005 to provide holistic attention to victims of the armed conflict. A Unique Registry of Victims (URV) was set up to recognise the collective or individual harm to victims, without discrimination. Programmes for health reparation, educational reparation and collective reparation were established as part of the IRP. The collective reparations programme aimed at strengthening communal relations as those most affected by the conflict were the poor, rural and indigenous communities. 2. García Lucero et al. v. Chile, Case no. 12.519. 14 International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims Sharon Vermaak (The Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture, South Africa) spoke about rehabilitation in post-apartheid South Africa. She highlighted the different groups of victims — apartheid-era victims that appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, who still use rehabilitation services; apartheid-era victims, who start to need rehabilitation years after the torture took place; and second-generation apartheid-era victims. In addition, present-day victims include refugees and asylum-seekers, victims of hate crimes, alleged criminals, suspects, protesters, communities in conflict with the law and victims of organised crime. Perpetrators of torture are both state and non-state actors. In general, the government needs to honour the Convention against Torture both procedurally and substantively; as long as Article 14 is not part of the legislative framework, rehabilitation services will remain poor and under-resourced. In addition, training and capacity development of medical, legal and mental health professionals on torture is essential, and there is a need for more research into the links between torture victims and organised crime and prisons. General discussion The need to include rehabilitation as part of the transitional justice process, the problems with cut-off dates (or closed lists) for victims to claim reparations, and recognising the needs of second and thirdgeneration victims were some of the common threads of rehabilitation in transitional justice societies. The examples given showed the various challenges of providing collective versus individual reparations, with rehabilitation as one component. In Peru, collective reparations have been used to further political interests, and local authorities have failed to inform local communities of their rights in some cases. With collective reparations, some victims may feel they are not adequately recognised if funds are allocated to the whole population and not to individual victims. It was agreed that a truth and reconciliation commission is an important part of the process, but that, in the case of South Africa, its success was limited in encouraging the government to take responsibility for rehabilitation services. In transitional justice societies, there is the likelihood that violence becomes normalised and perpetrators can become victims, or vice-versa. This can foster discrimination in accessing rehabilitation services.

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