Compensation of war damages to the victims: Colombian experience and lessons for Ukraine
April 11, 2024
Compensation of war damages to the victims: Colombian experience and lessons for Ukraine
Compensation for damages caused by war is not a new issue in international practice. After 1945, it was raised regularly - primarily in connection with the need to restore order in the world after World War II, but also to restore justice as a result of other conflicts that took place in the eight decades after that war.
The context of each armed conflict can complicate the issue of reparations, especially in cases where it is not an international conflict but an intra-state dispute. One such case was the internal armed conflict in Colombia, which resulted in the creation of reparations mechanisms for this type of conflict. For Ukraine, although it has faced direct external aggression and compensation for its losses is considered exclusively in the international plane, the Colombian experience can be extremely valuable in order to avoid mistakes in the creation of compensation mechanisms.
Together with our colleagues from the Colombian organization Enramada, we have prepared this report to analyze the many possible ways of compensation for Ukraine.
The material was prepared with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation as part of the project "#Compensation4UA/Compensation for war losses for Ukraine. Phase III: Advocating for steps to ensure a sustainable compensation strategy".
