Transitional Justice as Reparations That Cannot Wait

In his book Transitional Justice: Global Mechanisms and Local Realities after Genocide and Mass Violence, Alexander Hinton identifies three key activities that characterize transitional justice. These primary activities of transitional justice are memorialization, reparations, and lustrations. A logical starting point for the process is the rebuttal of Holocaust denial. While lustrations must happen in a timely manner, a practical starting point to reverse the effects of genocide is reparations. Many surviving victims require triage for survival given the dire conditions of their existence. So, some steps in the victim reparation process cannot wait. This triage operation alone cannot fulfill the obligations for reparations. In addition to victims’ bodily trauma, victims suffered individual property losses, communities had sacred and cultural artifacts looted or destroyed, and the infrastructure of affected societies was in disarray. Trauma to victims is an overlooked factor that should become part of the calculations for reparations. This chapter focuses on triage for victims as a variety of reparations.