Promises and Payments: Introducing a New Reparations Dataset

• In Event: Coding, Databases and Datasets in Transitional Justice Research

Abstract

This article introduces a new reparations dataset that records whether governments of countries in Latin America, Europe, and Central Asia made reparations promises and payments to their citizens between 1945 and 2020 for state-sanctioned human rights abuses that occurred between 1939 and 2006 during dictatorships and/or internal conflicts. The dataset lists the reparations outcomes for 174 cases that occurred during 128 abusive episodes in over 60 countries, and it codes outcomes for 64 separate victim groups. This dataset differs from existing datasets in three key ways. First, it distinguishes between reparations promises and payments. Second, it includes cases where reparations were paid and cases where governments abused citizens but either did not promise reparations or promised but never paid reparations. Third, in select cases where abusive regimes violated multiple distinct victim groups, it codes each group’s reparations outcomes separately. The benefits of these coding choices are discussed in the article.

Author

• Claire Greenstein, University of Alabama, Birmingham