Professor Kimberly Theidon of Harvard's Department of Anthropology is pleased to
announce the following public lecture. Please feel free to forward the
information to any interested parties.
>From Theory to Reality: Reparations in Post Truth Commission Peru
Lisa Laplante
Research Associate with PRAXIS: An Institute for Social Justice
William James Hall, Room #6
33 Kirkland Street, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
April 25, 2005, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
In 2001, Peru established its Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) charged
with investigating the twenty-year internal armed conflict between the State
and terrorists organizations. The TRC issued its final report in 2003, and
one key component was the Integral Plan of Reparations, one of the most
comprehensive reparations plan to date. Reparations for serious human rights
abuses serve two purposes. They compensate victims for the harm suffered as a
result of the act or omission of the State, and they aim to deter future human
rights violations. For that reason, reparations programs take on particular
significance in post-conflict societies attempting to transition towards peace
and democracy. In her talk, Lisa Laplante will discuss the legal and
theoretical basis for reparations, as well as her experience is designing
Peru's reparations program. She will then draw upon her legal representation
of over 100 Peruvians who were unjustly imprisoned for terrorism, analyzing
the complexities of seeking reparations as a measure of justice from the
Peruvian state.
Lisa J. Laplante is a lawyer specializing in human rights law and transitional
justice. In 2002 she won funding from the International Justice Program of
Notre Dame School of Law to serve as a researcher with the Peruvian Truth and
Reconciliation Commission (TRC) where she conducted a study on the experience
and perceptions of victims participating in TRC public hearings as well as
assisted in the development of the TRC's Integral Plan of Reparations.
Currently she is a Research Associate with PRAXIS: An Institute for Social
Justice and is based in Peru as the project director of the studies "The
Enforceability of the Right to Mental Health for Victims of Peru's Internal
Armed Conflict" and "When the Truth is Not Enough: The Politics of Reparations
n Post-Truth Commission Peru."
--
Jenifer Paras
Staff Assistant to Professor Kimberly Theidon
Harvard University
Department of Anthropology
William James Hall
33 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-496-5259
Fax: 617-496-8355
