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From 1904 to 1908, German soldiers and settler colonists killed about half of all Nama people and over 80% of the Herero ethnic group. On May 28, 2021, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas . Maas鈥� statement was Germany鈥檚 first official description of these events as 鈥済enocide.鈥� Maas also announced that Germany would pay Namibia roughly $1.3 billion to answer for these crimes. Many refer to this gesture as reparations.

Meanwhile, in the United States,  for slavery are gaining traction. A growing number of universities,  and , along with a few cities such as , have started reparations programs. In April, the  to  exploring reparations at the national level.

As a scholar who  how societies deal with histories of mass atrocities and also  on policies to protect those at risk, I argue that past atrocities do not end when the physical violence comes to an end. The violence  the social, cultural, and economic lives of those targeted far into the future鈥攎aking societies sometimes turn to reparations.

What Are Reparations?

 part of a set of tools that societies use to respond to past mass violence. Often called , these tools also include things such as , , and . 

Transitional justice has emerged from international human rights laws requiring United Nations member states to . But many victims never receive reparations, while initiatives that do occur often fall short. 

The first major reparations program began in 1952, when 23 Jewish organizations formed the  to seek redress for Holocaust victims and their families. The Claims Conference has gone on to distribute over $80 billion in reparations.

In the 1980s and 1990s, governments themselves began implementing reparations programs. Such Latin American countries as  and  offered reparations to victims of the right-wing military dictatorships that engulfed the region during the Cold War. During this period, hundreds of thousands of people in the region suffered disappearance, torture and death because they were deemed to be political subversives. In the 1990s, Central and Eastern European countries like  and  began reparations programs to restore property to those who lost it during the Communist era. 

How Do Reparations Work?

In the United States, when people hear the term 鈥渞eparations,鈥� they often think of direct payments of money. But reparations can take many forms. 鈥淐ompensation鈥� is the direct payment of money. 鈥淩estitution鈥� is the return of rights and property. 鈥淩ehabilitation鈥� includes things such as giving victims mental and physical health care. 

There are also 鈥�,鈥� such as , , and . 

Purely symbolic initiatives may feel empty to victims. Material reparations without public and visible symbolic gestures may feel insufficient. So typically, a successful reparations program includes both. 

But, so far, the Germany-Namibia program, as well as many U.S. efforts, seem to be focusing on material compensation alone. In doing so, they ignore two other important principles of transitional justice: 鈥渃omplementarity,鈥� or the idea that transitional justice works best when multiple tools are used at once, and 鈥渃onsultation.鈥�

Money Is Just One Part of Reparations

Mass atrocities arise from complex social and political processes that target certain identity groups. So addressing all of their legacies successfully requires many different policy initiatives working hand in hand, or complementarity.

In  and , for instance, national truth commissions investigated and brought to light the abuses that victims suffered. The commissions then recommended several forms of material and symbolic reparations to respond to those harms, including payments to victims, official acknowledgments and public memorials. 

In , on the other hand, reparations were ordered by the justices in the . This is a special court set up to try members of the Khmer Rouge regime, which controlled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and was the responsible for the murder of as many at 1.5 million people.

In Germany鈥檚 case, the offer of reparations to Namibia is not being complemented by other measures to deal with the past. In fact, the government  and prefers to call it 鈥渄evelopment aid.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;, calling the payment 鈥渞eparations鈥� could open the door for further civil claims against Germany.

When reparations measures aren鈥檛 met with initiatives responding to the structural causes of violence, 鈥� because victims believe accepting the payment means giving up their right to justice. It may also . But when accompanied by efforts to seek justice and reform the institutions that violated victims鈥� rights, I argue, reparations can be a starting point for rebuilding trust and community.

Putting Survivors at the Center

Reparations package determined by political elites behind closed doors may fail to restore the trust that has been decimated by past wrongs. So, as argued by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights,  must be at the center of determining what reparations look like.

, tens of thousands of victims were tortured during the 1973 to 1990 military dictatorship for being 鈥減olitical subversives.鈥� Also, thousands disappeared. When victims and their families sought reparations after the dictatorship ended, the government began a thorough consultation process that led to creative solutions. 

Based on these consultations,  instead of lump sums. Also, reparations included . These solutions may not have been found without consulting with victims.

The German package, by contrast, has been primarily negotiated with the Namibian government, which contains few . Herero and Nama leaders have responded by calling the German proposal a 鈥�.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

In the U.S., Georgetown and the Jesuit priests who run it have  as reparations to the descendants of the enslaved people sold to finance the university. But some descendants have criticized Georgetown鈥檚 consultation process. One descendant told the news outlet Quartz that  were involved in the consultation process.

The modern history of reparations is only a few decades old, but it already demonstrates that reparations are always about more than the money. If the process includes compensation, but ignores complementarity and consultation, the effort may fail to truly answer for the past.

But when all three principles are central, reparations can mean far more than money in someone鈥檚 pocket. They can contribute to repairing the social fabric that has been torn apart by mass violence.

This article was originally published by . It has been published here with permission.