Premium
Trapped between Promise and Reality in Colombia's Victims' Law: Reflections on Reparations, Development and Social Justice
Author(s) -
WEBER SANNE
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
bulletin of latin american research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1470-9856
pISSN - 0261-3050
DOI - 10.1111/blar.12887
Subject(s) - transformative learning , transitional justice , citizen journalism , economic justice , ethnography , government (linguistics) , state (computer science) , sociology , law , social justice , political science , participatory action research , criminology , pedagogy , linguistics , philosophy , algorithm , anthropology , computer science
Colombia's 2011 Victims' Law aims to return land to millions of internally displaced people and assist survivors in the difficult process of rebuilding their lives through individual and collective reparations. This article analyses the expectations, experiences and needs of two campesino communities involved in this process. Drawing on nine months of fieldwork using ethnographic and participatory visual methods, the article critically engages with transitional justice theory on transformative reparations, and identifies key lessons for the Colombian government to make the Victims' Law live up to its promise of transforming survivors' lives and restoring their trust in the state.