Luke Moffett

Queen's University Belfast | QUB · School of Law

Compensation schemes for criminal injuries have been practised in numerous countries for over 60 years. Northern Ireland in 1968 introduced a criminal injury compensation scheme to ensure that victims were not left with the burden of the harm and loss caused by criminal acts. However, with the onset of the ‘Troubles’ in 1969 and the deaths of thous...

This article from the Lieber Institute's Articles of War delves into the complexities of reparations in protracted conflicts, with a focused examination of Colombia's enduring armed violence.

2024 will mark seventy-five years since the adoption of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Despite the drafters’ efforts to mitigate the worst horrors of armed conflict, contemporary conflicts continue to witness the death and suffering of millions. This raises fundamental concerns over the ability of international law to alleviate the harm caused to tho...

The past decade has witnessed reparations at international criminal justice bodies move from theory to practice, with courts in the Hague, Phnom Penh, and Dakar ordering redress after a conviction. At the same time, a number of books reflecting on the practice of reparations before such bodies have been published.¹ Much of this work builds on the l...

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how fe...

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how fe...

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how fe...

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how fe...

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how fe...

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how fe...

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how fe...

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how fe...

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how fe...

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how fe...

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how fe...

The capacity of non-state armed groups (NSAGs) to inflict harms on civilians or other combatants remains a perennial challenge of the international and legal political order. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimates that some 60–80 million civilians are currently living under ‘direct State-like governance of armed groups’, with...

Reparations as a transitional justice mechanism to remedy victims' harm, with an emphasis on state-building and a liberal market democracy, can clash with other post-conflict goals of reconciliation and the prevention of future violations. This article reviews the claimed goals and expectations for reparations, exploring especially their relationsh...

This dialogue piece is an interview conducted with Fighters for Peace on reparations and non-state armed groups.

This article examines the role of Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs) and their former members in delivering reparations to victims and communities affected by past acts of violence. The article draws from extensive interviews with former members of armed groups, victims and communities affected by violence in Colombia, Guatemala, Nepal, Northern Irelan...

Reparations are widely regarded as a key element of dealing with the past in transitional justice. Over the past three decades, there has been a plethora of state practice, jurisprudence, and international norms requiring states and other responsible actors to redress victims’ harm. Yet in practice there remain significant deficiencies in deliverin...

Atrocities by non-State armed groups (NSAGs) often capture international attention, but efforts to repair the harm they have caused are often overlooked. This article traces out some of the practices and tensions in NSAGs making reparations during wartime and in post-conflict transitions. It argues that engaging in reparations for acts committed by...

More than 20 years on from the signing of the Rome Statute, delivering victim-centred justice through reparations has been fraught with legal and practical challenges. The Court’s jurisprudence on reparations only began to emerge from 2012 and struggles to find purchase on implementation on the ground. In its first few cases of Lubanga, Katanga, an...

Forced sterilisation has been used by many states to control or diminish minority groups. Examples of forced sterilisation include the Nazis against Jewish, Roma and Sinti peoples and the Imperial Japanese Army in Korea during the Second World War, its historic use against Native Americans in the United States and more recent practice in Peru and t...

The destruction of the cultural property in conflict zones around the world has captured international attention on the need to prevent its destruction and prosecute those responsible. This article examines the current legal protection and international criminal framework on the criminalisation of the destruction of cultural property and in particu...

Armed conflict has traditionally seen the targeting and destruction of cultural property and heritage from antiquity to modern conflicts in Syria. Despite the cultural connection between such objects and traditions with people, international law has concentrated on its preservation, prosecution and punishment, rather than reparations for the loss o...

INTRODUCTION Transitional justice emerged after the Second World War as a set of discrete measures, such as trials, truth commissions or reparations, to address the atrocities of a past regime and to transition societies away from the recurrence of atrocities. Since the 1990s there has been an increasing emphasis on the need for multifaceted, compr...

The debate around reparations for the transatlantic slave trade has been discussed for centuries with no end in sight. This article does not intend to cover the historical or political aspects of this debate, but instead to shed more light on the legal options with regards to reparations. In particular this article examines the role of politically...

Reparations have been often-used victim-centred measures to redress both private harm and gross violations of human rights. However, with the increasing occurrence of internal armed conflict and political violence, identities of victims and perpetrators in protracted conflicts can become blurred for some individuals. In countries like Peru and Nort...

The destruction of cultural property during times of conflict can amount to a war crime, a crime against humanity or genocide. cultural property can include land, buildings, monuments, artistic works and other objects of ‘great importance to the cultural heritage of every people’.1 International law also protects things that are not physical, such...

Victim personal statements (VPS) have been introduced in a number of common law criminal justice systems. Although they have been espoused as important in ensuring victims’ ‘voices’ are ‘heard’ in sentencing, this article examines the extent of improving victim satisfaction and procedural justice in Northern Ireland. In light of increasing juridifi...

Victims have often been the justification of international criminal trials, but only recently allowed to participate in proceedings. With the provision of victim participation at the International Criminal Court and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia there is a growing literature in international criminal justice exploring the rol...

Reparations at the International Criminal Court (ICC) raise victims’ expectations that they would have an avenue of redress in the face of domestic impunity. This article examines the purpose of reparations at the ICC, which notably move away from the international-law state-centric modes of liability for reparations to more private-law individual...

The graphic and widespread atrocities committed during conflicts around the world and broadcast across 24/7 news and social media have made war never feel so close and the powerlessness of law seem so real. This raises difficulties in engaging students in real-life decision-making quandaries where military necessity meets legalism, as well as funda...

Reparations are often considered victim-centred transitional justice measures. While they have their basis in private law notions of corrective justice and the human rights principle of remedy, politics and economic resources often shape reparations in times of transition. Reparations in transitional societies often take time and require revisiting...

Providing detailed and comprehensive coverage of the transitional justice field, this Research Handbook brings together leading scholars and practitioners to explore how societies deal with mass atrocities after periods of dictatorship or conflict. Situating the development of transitional justice in its historical context, social and political con...

Submission to the International Criminal Court by QUB Human Rights Centre on reparations issues pursuant to Article 75 of the Rome Statute in the case of The Prosecutor v Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo (Situation in the Central African Republic).

This is the fourth and final Report of the ILA Committee on Non-State Actors (NSAs). The first section of the Report briefly summarizes the history of the Committee and introduces the structure and purposes of this Final Report. The second section of the Final Report introduces a working definition of the term NSAs. It also discusses the appropriat...

Images of oil-covered seabirds or radioactive fallout from nuclear disasters easily evoke concerns over the risks to personal integrity and environmental degradation. The energy-extraction industry, like others, is profit-driven – a competitive enterprise, with little regard for the social impact of its activities beyond corporate social responsibi...

Working Paper on Acknowledging and Repairing the Moral and Collective Harm of Ethnic Vietnamese Victims of the Khmer Rouge Genocide.

Reparations are often considered victim-centred transitional justice measures. While they have their basis in private law notions of corrective justice and human rights principles of remedy, politics and economic resources often shape reparations in times of transition. Reparations in transitional justice often take time and require revisiting as s...

Reparations have been often used victim-centred measures to redress both private harm and gross violations of human rights. However, with the increasing occurrence of internal armed conflict and political violence, identities of victims and perpetrators in protracted conflicts can become blurred for some individuals. In countries like Peru and Nort...

Reparations are often declared victim-centred, but in transitional societies defining who is a victim and eligible for reparations can be politically charged and controversial. The messy reality of conflict means that perpetrators and victims do not always fall into two separate categories. In certain circumstances, perpetrators can be victimized a...

The International Criminal Court was established to tackle impunity for international crimes. Its jurisdiction is premised on states being primarily responsible for investigating and prosecuting those who commit international crimes, with the Court only acting as a last resort. The principle of complementarity has arisen to explain such an arrangem...

Justice for victims has often been invoked as the raison d’être of international criminal justice, achieved by punishing perpetrators of international crimes. This article attempts to provide a more holistic account of justice for victims by examining victims’ needs, interests and rights. The International Criminal Court (ICC) itself includes parti...

This article explores the role of victims in the criminal proceedings of the International Criminal Court and the extent to which their interests have impacted upon the ICC judges’ decision making in light of human rights law and victimological theorisation. The article begins by first outlining how victims’ interests can be considered in internati...

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is established to investigate, prosecute and punish the 'most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole'. In the first few cases before the ICC, the Court has concentrated on use of child soldiers in Democratic Republic of Congo and Northern Uganda, genocide in Darfur, and political v...

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been celebrated for its innovative victim provisions, which enable victims to participate in proceedings, avail of protection measures and assistance, and to claim reparations. The impetus for incorporating victim provisions within the ICC, came from victims’ dissatisfaction with the ad hoc tribunals in pr...

The International Criminal Court was established to tackle impunity for international crimes. Its jurisdiction is premised on states being primarily responsible for investigating and prosecuting those who commit international crimes, with the Court only acting as a last resort. The principle of complementarity has arisen to explain such an arrangem...

Reparations are often considered victim-centred transitional justice measures. While they have their basis in private law notions of corrective justice and human rights principles of remedy, politics and economic resources often shape reparations in times of transition. Reparations in transitional justice often take time and require revisiting as s...

Fieldwork that takes place in conflict or transitional regions is becoming increasingly popular amongst early-career and more seasoned researchers, but is an area that retains an air of mystery and remains an exotic form of knowledge gathering. There exists a paucity of personal reflection on the challenges associated with conducting fieldwork in c...

Many prosecutors and commentators have praised the victim provisions at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as 'justice for victims', which for the first time include participation, protection and reparations. This book critically examines the role of victims in international criminal justice, drawing from human rights, victimology, and best pra...

Reparations over the past few decades have become integral in responding to mass victimisation and conflict in international law and transitional justice. Although the development of reparations in transitional justice has been framed around abusive authoritarian regimes and repairing the harm suffered by civilians, such as in Latin America, there...

This article examines the reparation regime of the International Criminal Court in light of its first reparation decision. Based on the reparation jurisprudence established in international law and human rights law to provide victims of international crimes an effective remedy, this article suggests that in order for the International Criminal Cour...

This paper explores the responsibility of armed non-state actors for reparations to victims. Traditionally international law has focused on the responsibility of the state, and more recently the responsibility of convicted individuals before the International Criminal Court, to provide reparations for international crimes. Yet despite the prevalenc...

This article analyses the role of victims within the founding international criminal tribunals of the Second World War, drawing from historical research of the practice and judgements of the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals. While some commentators have decried the absence of victims at Nuremberg and Tokyo, numerous victim-witnesses testified before t...

Field notes from work in eastern DRC.

This article seeks to challenge the perception that the ICC can encompass both the interests of justice and the interests of the victim. Looking a past examples and current practice of the ICC it concludes that so far the Court has failed to engage with victims leaving most without recourse or rights at the Court but it is hoped that the Court will...

This article looks at the role of genocide in Rwanda history and contemporary politics and considers how both democracy, justice and reconciliation has been dealt with by the post genocidial government. The dissertation considers that there have been three main failings in Rwanda that will cause the repeat of violence in the region- failure to lear...

This article examines the underlying problems of the Congo conflict and the initiatives taken during the peace process, its achievements and failures. It makes a brief comparison with other jurisdictions emerging from conflict, and argues that serious underlying problems remain, which have been inadequately addressed by the peace process or not at...