• Medical services. According to the Basic Principles and Guidelines, the notion of “rehabilitation” owed to victims includes medical and psychological rehabilitation. Since 1992, Chile has been providing medical services to the victims of the dictatorship. The reparations programme proposed by the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission also covered health care, both physical and mental, and, interestingly, the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Moroccan Equity and Reconciliation Commission included in-house medical units. In Peru, the unit, largely focused on mental health, worked with victims before, during and after public hearings and testimonies, and provided support to the Commission’s staff as well. The medical unit in Morocco’s Commission, which was not meant to replace other sources of medical services (although it did provide some services), had two main functions: to accompany the other units of the Commission in their work and produce a detailed study of the medical condition of the victims under the Commission’s mandate (a study that would help frame the reparations recommendations), and to identify particularly urgent cases that could not wait until the end of the process before receiving attention. There are some merits to this structure and it deserves further exploration. Generally speaking, there are good reasons for reparations programmes to be concerned with health issues, not least the very high incidence of trauma induced by the experiences of violence.43 Moreover, victims seem more prone to disease.44 Providing medical services, including psychiatric treatment and psychological counselling, constitutes a very effective way of improving the quality of life of survivors and their families. Providing these services effectively, however, is not easy. Some of the challenges are: – It is a mistake to think that it is enough to make existing medical services available to the victims. First, victims have special needs, some of which the existing medical services may be unable to satisfy. The traumas produced by the voluntary infliction of violence are unlike other traumas and these patients, therefore, need specialized care. There are, however, not enough trained medical personnel to provide it. In most countries emerging from conflict and repression, there are few mental health specialists experienced in treating torture victims. Second, and perhaps more challenging still, victims of serious human rights violations have histories that make them unlike other patients—and not only regarding psychological counselling. Their prior experiences affect the way services of all kinds need to be delivered, and great efforts are required to make providers at all levels aware of these special needs. – To a large degree the quality of the health-care services provided depends on the quality of the existing health-care institutions, for no country can afford, especially in the short run, to build up entirely new facilities for these patients. Creating specialized 43 44 In Chile the PRAIS programme offers mental health services as well as general and specialized physical care to more than 190,000 beneficiaries. More than 50 per cent of appointments are related to mental health. Norma Técnica para la Atención en Salud de Personas Afectadas por la Represión Política Ejercida por el Estado en el Período 1973-1990. Ibid. 24