School of Social and Political Science

SPS researcher awarded ERC Consolidator grant to study consequences of reparation programmes for war crimes and human rights violations



Dr Jean-Benoit Falisse has won a €2million grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to research the aftermath of reparation programmes for the victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and grave human rights violations. 

The five-year project will examine reparations for atrocity crimes and their effects on redress and justice.

‘AFTER-REP: Repairing the most serious crimes: understanding the consequences of reparations programmes’ aims to retheorise the idea of repair and how it can be planned, assessed and understood. 

Examining influential reparation programmes

Work will begin in mid-2026, with a first phase building on insights from development studies to comprehensively map and critically analyse the aftermath of a diverse range of existing reparation programmes.

The second phase will consist of mixed-methods field research in three influential reparations cases:

  • War crimes – The reparations ordered by the International Criminal Court in the Lubanga and Ntaganda cases in the DR Congo
  • Colonial crimes – The reparations paid by the UK to Mau Mau rebellion survivors in Kenya
  • Environmental crimes – The reparations ordered by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights in the Lhaka Honhat vs. Argentina case

Dr Falisse will work with colleagues in the School of Social and Political Science – Dr Simeon Koroma and Dr Tom Molony – on the project. They will work with partners in Canada, DR Congo, Argentina and Kenya.

Transforming understanding of reparation

Dr Falisse, Senior Lecturer in African Studies and International Development, and Co-Director of the Centre of African Studies, said: “Despite significant legal and philosophical scholarship, the question of what reparation programmes actually produce remains largely unexplored.

“AFTER-REP uncovers how the empirical, material, and embodied experiences of reparation programmes challenge norms and expectations.

“It aims to transform both academic understandings and practical policy frameworks on reparations, advancing wider and burning debates on justice and redress, and laying the foundation for interdisciplinary reparation studies.”