INTRODUCTION The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has long been committed to promoting work on reparations for victims of human rights violations. Some of these efforts have borne fruit in recent years with the adoption by the General Assembly of the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law.1 Similarly, OHCHR stood behind the work that led to the Updated Set of principles for the protection and promotion of human rights through action to combat impunity2 and the accompanying reports,3 which also contain important references to reparations. This publication is intended to assist in the implementation of the principles contained in the above-mentioned documents. It is a practical tool to provide guidance on implementing reparations initiatives. Its focus is not on redressing single or isolated human rights violations, but on how to establish (out-of-court) reparations programmes to help redress cases of gross and serious violations of human rights in the wake of conflict or authoritarian rule. In such situations large numbers of victims deserve and call for reparations, but their claims cannot be redressed through individual cases in a court of law, in part because of their numbers and in part because of the incapacity of the legal system. In response to the myriad violations and abuses of fundamental rights that take place particularly during conflicts and under authoritarian regimes, a variety of measures have been developed. They include criminal prosecutions, truth-telling strategies, various forms of institutional reform—for instance, vetting strategies—local justice and reconciliation initiatives, and reparations for victims.4 All of these are important; hopes have been pinned on each, both for corrective and for preventive reasons (albeit each to different degrees); and for each there are successes and failures. No country that has experienced gross and systematic human rights violations5 can argue that it has achieved total success in their implementation. 1 2 3 4 5 Resolution 60/147 of 16 December 2005. The Basic Principles and Guidelines are based on the work of Theo van Boven and M. Cheriff Bassiouni. E/CN.4/2005/102/Add.1. “Independent study on best practices, including recommendations, to assist States in strengthening their domestic capacity to combat all aspects of impunity, by Professor Diane Orentlicher” (E/CN.4/2004/88) and “Report of the independent expert to update the Set of principles to combat impunity, Diane Orentlicher” (E/CN.4/2005/102). See the OHCHR rule-of-law tools for post-conflict States on truth commissions, prosecution initiatives and vetting. The Basic Principles and Guidelines do not define either “gross violations of international human rights law” or “serious violations of international humanitarian law.” Although not formally defined in international law, “gross violations” and “serious violations” denote types of violations that, systematically perpetrated, affect in qualitative and quantitative terms the most basic rights of human beings, notably the right to life and the right to physical and moral integrity of the human person. It is generally assumed that genocide, slavery and slave trade, murder, enforced disappearances, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged arbitrary detention, deportation or forcible transfer of population, and systematic racial discrimination fall into this category. Deliberate and systematic deprivation of essential foodstuffs, essential primary 1