and torture caused by State security agents in 2008. The compensation included a $50,000 USD contribution to her legal costs.381 counselling, rehabilitation and support services, assistance and information.”388 Rehabilitation also includes “guarantees of non-repetition, restoration of personal liberty, family life, citizenship, employment or property, return to one’s place of residence and similar forms of restitution, satisfaction and reparation which may remove the consequences of the enforced disappearance.”389 Reparation programmes should include access to education for child victims.390 Where a victim accepts such measures of assistance, they cannot be deemed to have waived their right to reparations for the violations they suffered as a result of the ED.391 Restitution. Restitution aims at restoring the victim to the original situation they were in before the violation they suffered.382 Forms of restitution include restoring “liberty, enjoyment of human rights, identity, family life and citizenship, return to one’s place of residence, restoration of employment and return of property.”383 For example, where it is not possible to determine the whereabouts of a disappeared person, “declarations of absence by reason of enforced disappearance” should be issued, with the consent of the family, by a State authority, after a certain time has elapsed since the disappearance, in any case no less than one year.384 In any event, the issuance of such a declaration does not relieve the State of the obligation to investigate and search for the whereabouts of the disappeared. As full restitution is not possible in cases of ED due to the “irreversible nature of the harm”, other forms of reparations, such as compensation and rehabilitation, should complement restitution.385 Satisfaction focuses on measures to cease and officially acknowledge the violations. This includes public disclosure of the truth; investigating the whereabouts of the disappeared and assisting in their reburial; official declarations to restore their dignity; public apologies; judicial or other sanctions against the perpetrator; commemorations and tributes; and inclusion of accounts of the violations in educational materials.392 Symbolic reparations are a form of satisfaction and can include commemoration days, reburials and rituals, individual and collective apologies, plaques, tombstones and monuments.393 Guarantees of non-repetition. The State must “adopt measures to eradicate the circumstances that permitted the disappearances to occur, and which may permit similar events to occur again.”386 As part of this, States should ensure effective control over their forces, and that all proceedings abide by international human rights standards.387 Obstacles for accessing effective reparations Obstacles for victims of ED in Africa attempting to access effective reparations include the lack of political will, absence of proper legal or institutional frameworks and, in particular, the lack of mechanisms for Rehabilitation. State institutions must provide victims with adequate financial, psychological and legal 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 International Federation of Human Rights, Zimbabwe: State ordered to pay 150,000 USD reparation to Jestina Mukoko, 12 October 2018. OHCHR, Basic Principles and Guidelines, note supra 219, para. 19. Ibid. WGEID Report, General Comment on the Right to Recognition, supra note 192, para. 6-7. Such a declaration should not put an end to investigations into the whereabouts of the disappeared; Ibid, paras.7-8. Report of the WGEID, UN Doc. A/HRC/22/45, 28 January 2013, para. 55. WGEID, General Comment on Women Affected by Enforced Disappearances, UN Doc. A/HRC/WGEID/98/2, 14 February 2013, para. 40; see also: HRC, El Boathi v. Algeria, Communication No. 2259/2013, 16 May 2017, para. 9; ACHPR, Institute of Human Rights and Development in Africa and others v. DRC, Communication 393/10, June 2016, para. 154. This includes through adequate education, strengthening institutions, protecting human rights defenders and other related professions, promoting mechanisms to prevent and monitor conflicts and their resolution, reviewing and reforming laws contributing to or allowing violations of international standards; OHCHR, Basic Principles and Guidelines, note supra 219, para. 23. WGEID, General Comment on Women Affected by Enforced Disappearances, UN Doc. A/HRC/WGEID/98/2, 14 February 2013, para. 44; OHCHR, Basic Principles and Guidelines, supra note 219 para. 21; see also: ACHPR, Institute of Human Rights and Development in Africa and others v. DRC, Communication 393/10, June 2016, para. 152. WGEID, General Comment on Article 19, supra note 357, para. 75. WGEID, General Comment on Children and Enforced Disappearances, UN Doc. A/HRC/WGEDI/98/1, 14 February 2013, para. 33. WGEID Report, General Comment on the right to recognition, supra note 192, para. 9, in Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, UN Doc. HRC/19/58/Rev.1, 2 March 2012. OHCHR, 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, Resolution 60/147, 16 December 2005, para. 22. In Gelman v. Uruguay, Merits and Reparations, 24 February 2011, para. 266, the IACtHR set a period of one year for the State to acknowledge its international responsibility, see also: Kawas Fernández v. Honduras, Merits, Reparations and Costs, 3 April 2009, para. 202. WGEID, General Comment on Women Affected by Enforced Disappearances, UN Doc. A/HRC/WGEID/98/2, 14 February 2013, para. 41. 55