SECTION 1: REPARATION AND REHABILITATION

1. Why Reparation?

2. What does "reparation and rehabilitation" mean?

3. The Importance of Reparation
   3.1 The Moral Basis for Reparation
   3.2 The Legal Basis for Reparation

4. How did the Committee prepare its Proposals?
   4.1 Information Collection
   4.2 Principles

1. When will Reparation be made?

2. Who will receive Reparation and Rehabilitation?

1. Interim Reparation

2. Individual Reparation Grants (IRG)

3. Symbolic Reparation, Legal and Administrative measures
   3.1 Individual Benefits
   3.2 Community Benefits
   3.3 National Benefits

4. Community Rehabilitation Programmes
   4.1 Health Care
   4.2 Mental Health Care
   4.3 Education
   4.4 Housing

5. Institutional Reform

1. The Presidents Fund

SECTION 1: REPARATION AND REHABILITATION

Thousands of people have been severely affected by the conflicts of the past. If we are to get over the past and build national unity and reconciliation, we must make sure that people who suffered gross human rights abuses are acknowledged by providing them with reparation.

These measures cannot bring back the dead, or adequately compensate for pain and suffering, but they can improve the quality of life for victims of gross human rights violations and/or their dependants. The Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation (the Committee) has developed reparation policy proposals.

"Reparation and rehabilitation" are words to describe what can be done to help victims overcome the damage that they suffered, to give them back their dignity and to make sure that these abuses do not happen again. Although this could include money, a financial payment is not the only form of reparation and rehabilitation that the Committee recommends. The Committee looked at individuals, communities and the nation as a whole when making recommendations to achieve reparation and rehabilitation.

There are several reasons for providing reparation. It is important that we know what these reasons are, so that we can understand why people will receive reparation.

• Victims of gross human rights abuses have the right to reparation and rehabilitation because of the many different types of losses they have suffered.
  
• Victims need to be compensated in some way, because the amnesty process means they lose the right to claim damages from perpetrators who are given amnesty.
  
• The present government has accepted that it must deal with the things the previous government did and that it must therefore take responsibility for reparation.

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The TRC was set up by an Act of Parliament, the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act. This Act says that the TRC must aim to:

• make proposals for measures that will give reparation to victims of human rights violations; and
  
• rehabilitate and give back the human and civil dignity of people who suffered human rights violations.

The Act also says that the Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation must recommend to the President ways of assisting victims. It is the President and Parliament, and not this Committee, who will decide what to do and how to do it. The recommendations from the Committee will be in the Final Report sent to the President after the Commission has completed its work.

The Committee is making recommendations which deal with interim reparation. Interim Reparation is for people who need immediate assistance because of the gross human rights violations they suffered.

The Act requires the President and the Ministers of Justice and Finance to establish a President’s Fund. Victims who qualify for assistance will be paid from this Fund.

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The Committee collected information from many different places to make these proposals. Victims and survivors, people who made statements to the TRC, representatives of non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations, faith communities and academic institutions were all consulted by the Committee. Consultative workshops were held throughout the country. All the information collected by the Committee helped it to:

• find out the harm that was suffered;
• find out what the needs and expectations of victims are;
• work out ways to identify and help victims in immediate need; and
• make proposals for long term measures for reparation and rehabilitation.

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The Committee based its work on a number of principles. These principles helped the Committee to develop proposals which aim to bring about healing and reconciliation.

• Development centred

A development-centred approach means that individuals and communities are helped to take control of their own lives. It is very important to provide individuals with knowledge and information about available resources and to help them use these resources in the way that benefits them most.

• Simple, Efficient and Fair

Proposals for reparation and rehabilitation need to be simple, efficient and fair. This means that the available resources will be used in a way which gives the most benefit to the people who receive them.

• Culturally Appropriate

The services that are developed as a result of the proposals for reparation and rehabilitation should be sensitive to the religious and cultural beliefs and practices of the community.

• Community-based

Community-based services and delivery should be strengthened and expanded to have a lasting effect on communities.

• Capacity Development

Community resources which are developed should focus on local capacity building as well as the delivery of services.

• Promoting Healing and Reconciliation

The activities that come out of these proposals should aim to bring people together and to promote understanding and reconciliation.

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The Act provides for two stages in the process of Reparation and Rehabilitation. These are:

• Interim Reparation; and
• Final Reparation Measures.

Interim Reparation is reparation which can be made until the government introduces the Final Reparation Measures. This is for people who are in urgent need of reparation because of the gross human rights violations they suffered.

The Final Reparation Measures will be included in the Report which goes to the President once the Commission has completed its work. They will be put in place by Parliament after there is agreement on them. The most important focus of the Final Reparation Measures is restoring the dignity of victims and survivors.

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Only people who:

• made statements to the Commission; or
• where referred to in someone else’s statement

can be considered for reparation.

Reparation will be given only to those formally declared victims by the Commission. The Commission will decide if someone is a victim by looking at all the information they have on the gross human rights violation suffered by that person. It may be possible, in certain circumstances, that the relatives and dependants of victims will also qualify for reparation.

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The Committee has proposed a Reparation and Rehabilitation Policy that has five parts.

1. Interim Reparation

2. Individual Reparation Grants (IRG)

3. Symbolic Reparation, Legal and Administrative measures

4. Community Rehabilitation Programmes

5. Institutional Reform

Interim Reparation is to help victims who are in urgent need because of the gross human rights violation they suffered. Victims will be helped to get access to the services and facilities they need. There is limited money available for this kind of assistance.

Benefits

If individuals are found to be victims and they are in urgent need, they will be entitled to the following:

• To be referred to appropriate services (government, non-government and/or private sector). This will depend on the type of need that they have.
  
• Victims may be given limited financial assistance in order to get to or to pay for services. This will be where free services or goods are not available. The relatives and dependants of a victim may also be able to get this kind of assistance, in certain circumstances.

The following sections give details of proposals from the Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation which will be sent to the President for decision and implementation. These are proposals for the Final Reparation Measures and will be in the report sent to the President when the Commission has finished its work.

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2 INDIVIDUAL REPARATION GRANT (IRG)

This is a special individual financial grant scheme. It is proposed that each victim of gross human rights violations, as decided by the Commission, will receive a financial grant which will be paid out over a period of six years.

The Individual Reparation Grant is a financial payment to acknowledge the suffering caused by a gross human rights violation. The IRG will also provide information and advice so that victims can obtain services and establish a reasonable standard of living.

The proposed IRG will be paid to each victim to meet the needs which they have identified, such as medical, education and housing needs. If the victim is dead, this grant will be paid to those dependants and/or relatives who have applied for reparation.

Who can apply for the IRG?

Only victims and relatives or dependants who have been identified by the Commission and who have applied for reparation will be eligible for the IRG.

If the victim died as a result of the violation, the relatives and/or dependants at the time of the victim’s death, will be able to apply for the IRG.

The IRG will be calculated according to a formula. This formula will take the following factors into account:

• ease of access to services and facilities; and
• a daily living costs subsidy based on the socio-economic circumstances of the applicant, including:
• the number of dependants and/or relatives, and
• differences in the living costs in rural and urban areas.

The proposal from the Committee is that each victim who qualifies for the IRG will get an amount between R17 000 and R23 000 each year for 6 years. Please remember that this a proposal to the President. The President and Parliament will make a decision on this proposal.

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The Committee has made several proposals for symbolic reparation and other measures, which will help in legal and administrative matters. Symbolic reparation is to help communities remember the pain and the victories of the past. This could include setting aside a day for national remembrance and reconciliation as well as the building of memorials and monuments.

The Committee has also proposed that steps are taken to help individuals to obtain death certificates, to sort out outstanding legal matters and to clear criminal records.

Symbolic reparation measures will restore the dignity of victims and survivors of gross human rights violations.

Beneficiaries

Victims identified through the TRC process, their families and communities at local, provincial and national levels will benefit from these measures. There will therefore be benefits which are for individuals only, as well as benefits which will be for the community and the nation.

Benefits

The following services could be made available:

• Issuing of Death Certificates

Many people who made statements to the Commission said that they did not have death certificates for their relatives who had died or been killed.

• Exhumation, Reburials and Ceremonies

People who died during the conflicts were often buried in unmarked graves, and their relatives were not present at the burial. It is important for these bodies to be given a proper burial. The costs of the reburial and ceremonies will be taken from the IRG.

• Headstones and Tombstones

Relatives of people who died want their loved ones to have headstones or tombstones. The cost of these will come from the IRG.

• Declarations of Death

People who disappeared need to be formally declared dead.

• Clearing of Criminal Records

Many victims have criminal records because of their political activities. A criminal record may have serious consequences. It is therefore important that political activities are no longer seen as criminal.

• Resolving outstanding legal matters related to the violations

Legal processes which affect people now, and which are related directly to the gross human rights violations suffered by victims, need to be resolved.

Local and provincial authorities, with civil society structures, could take responsibility for implementing the following measures:

• Renaming of Streets and Facilities

The renaming of streets and public buildings will help us remember individuals and events which are important to a community.

• Memorials/Monuments

The building of memorials and monuments will commemorate the victories and the conflicts of the past, and will help to make sure that the abuses people have suffered do not happen again.

• Culturally appropriate Ceremonies

The needs of the community must be taken into account when ceremonies are held. It may be that ceremonies such as cleansing ceremonies are needed by communities.

National benefits will need to be implemented by the relevant Ministries, together with civil society structures.

The following measures are proposed:

• Renaming of Public Facilities

Public buildings and structures need to be renamed in honour of individuals and past events.

• Monuments and Memorials

National monuments and memorials should be built. These will remind people of the things that happened in the past, and help make sure that abuses do not happen again.

A national day of remembrance and reconciliation will remind people of the struggles and pain of the past, and help to bring about reconciliation, so that we are able to move forward from the past into the future.

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These are proposals for setting up community-based services and activities which can promote the healing and recovery of individuals and communities affected by human rights violations. It is important that communities which have been affected by gross human rights abuses also benefit from reparation and rehabilitation measures. It is not enough to provide individual victims with resources and services, because this does not deal with the effects of gross human rights violations on the community as a whole. The Committee has therefore recommended that rehabilitation programmes are set up at both community and national levels.

These rehabilitation programmes should aim at developing and promoting reconciliation within communities.

The following programmes have been based on the needs expressed by those people who made statements to the TRC. They include programmes for health care (both physical and mental), education and housing.

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4.1 Health Care

A number of programmes have been proposed by the Committee to deal with the many people who have suffered. These programmes cover a wide range of different services and offer specific solutions to the problems experienced by different groups.

• Young people have become used to using violence to resolve conflict. The youth were involved in violent activities to bring about political change. Now that political change has occurred, a programme should be developed that is aimed at bringing the youth back into education and work programmes. High schools, universities, technikons and sports bodies would be involved in the delivery of this programme.
  
• Many people in South Africa have been driven from their homes by political conflict. People who have been forced to flee their homes often suffer emotional and psychological problems, as well as unemployment and difficulties caused by living in a strange place. A programme should be developed which will help resettle displaced communities.
  
• Victims and survivors of gross human rights violations have many physical and emotional needs. People with different skills, working at local clinics, are in the best position to help those who have suffered gross human rights violations.
  
• Perpetrators and their families also need to be brought back into normal community life. Systems need to be set up to help individuals and their families come to terms with their violent past and to learn new ways of resolving conflict non-violently.

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Mental health programmes form part of social and economic development. Programmes dealing with suffering should be linked to existing developmental projects.

Community based interventions

• Support groups to assist victims and survivors should be established. These groups should be able to keep themselves going and be based within the community. Facilitators from the community would be trained in counselling. The support group method represents a cost-effective, accessible and non-threatening way in which people can receive counselling.

• Victims of human rights abuses can be assisted in developing life skills. This will help them deal with the suffering they have experienced. Members of the community could be trained in a variety of skills so that they can assist victims of human rights abuses. These skills could include how to manage a crisis, how to be aware of what people have suffered, counselling skills for people using alcohol or drugs and counselling of people who have suffered gross human rights abuses.

• A national strategy to train counsellors to help people who have suffered or committed gross human rights violations should be developed.

• The impact of gross human rights violations on the family is often underestimated. Health care workers should be able to help the family as a whole.

• Community-based counsellors should be trained to assist people who have suffered gross human rights violations, and to help people who have experienced a painful or traumatic event.

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• The establishment of Community Colleges and Youth Centres is important and necessary so that the youth can become active members of their communities.
  
• Adult Basic Educational Programmes (ABET) should be established to meet the needs of youth and adults who have lost education opportunities due to human rights abuses.

• It is important that demolished schools should be rebuilt as soon as possible.

• Education programmes should include remedial and emotional support. Remedial support helps people who have learning problems.
  
• Education facilities should provide skills-based training courses which will respond to the needs of mature students. These courses would help students to find employment.

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• Housing projects should be started in communities where the gross violation of human rights has resulted in the mass destruction of property or forced people to flee their homes.

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One of the tasks of the TRC is to make proposals on institutional, legislative and administrative measures to prevent human rights abuses from happening in the future. These proposals will include measures which will promote good governance, accountability and the prevention of human rights violations in civil society and the state. The Committee’s recommendations in the area of institutional reform will be included in the Final Report of the TRC.

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The President’s Fund is responsible for carrying out the proposals and recommendations that are agreed to by the President and Parliament. It will work closely with the relevant government ministries and departments at national, provincial and local government levels.

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