Transitional justice and reparations in Burundi: Learning from others?

In present days, there is sufficient international experience to learn some lessons from, although states must strive to eschew one-size-fits-all formulas and the importation of pre-packed foreign models which are blind to the local context-specific needs. In the process of designing transitional justice response, Burundi can learn from successes and failures of past and current experiences both on the African continent and from Latin America where reparations to victims have been taken more or less seriously. Notwithstanding the keen understanding of the need to link different justice initiatives in a holistic transitional justice approach, the study underscores the importance of reparations to victims of gross violations of human rights in Burundi and identifies the best practices to take from the South African, Chilean, Peruvian and Colombian experiences, while avoiding making similar mistakes that undermined a full success of the above cases. Its contribution identifies lessons and suggests recommendations which can wisely guide different role-players who will design and implement the morally and legally justified reparations to provide for victims of the Burundian Conflict.

Autorentext

Lecturer of Law at University of Burundi (UB), Mr Berry Didier Nibogora worked with Norwegian Refugee Council in Burundi as Legal Trainer since he obtained the LLB in law (Licence en Droit) from UB with distinction in 2009. He also completed the LLM (Master s degree) in Human Rights&Democratisation in Africa at Law Faculty,University of Pretoria.