Aftermath: Exploring Need and Service Provision for Victims of the Northern Ireland Conflict

1. Aftermath: Exploring Need and Service Provision for Victims of the Northern Ireland Conflict Dr. Cheryl Lawther Research Fellow CSTPV 21 May 2012

2. Aims and Objectives • Aim: - To explore and critically analyse the experience of victims of political violence and terrorism and assess the provision of support initiatives in NI, UK and Spain. • Methodology: • Multidisciplinary literature review. - Semi-structured interviews: representatives of victims’ groups, political spokespersons and statutory agencies. • Objectives: • Terrain of Victimhood • Context of Victimhood • Politicisation of Victimhood • Victims’ Needs and Service Delivery

3. Terrain of Victimhood • 3,700 fatalities; 40,000 injured; victims’ services required for 100,000. • Under the Victims and Survivors Order (2006) 1/3 of NI’s population could qualify as a victim or survivor. • 1998 Belfast Agreement – expansion of victims groups and statutory developments. • Currently 47 victim and survivor groups operating in NI. • Creation of Commission for Victims and Survivors Northern Ireland (CVSNI) 2008. • CVSNI – Comprehensive Needs Assessment. • Total cost of £80,000,000.

4. Context of Victimhood • Key questions: • Different response: ‘Ordinary’ victims v. Victims of Terrorism? • Different experience: Victimhood in ‘transitional’ v. ‘settled’ societies? • Question of type and degree of need? • Importance of context, acknowledgement and responsibility for victimisation. • Need for ongoing support in context of political change.

5. Politicisation of Victimhood • The ‘politics of definitions’ and the construction of the complex political victim. • Political currency and expropriation of victimhood. Believed to convey legitimacy, moral superiority and righteousness. • ‘Victims debate’ as arena in which responsibility of conflict is contested through notions of ‘innocence’ and ‘guilt’ and question of ‘hierarchy of victimhood’. • ‘Use and abuse’ of victims groups / willing acquiescence - result – possible failure to promote needs and conflict transformation. • Disjuncture between overt politicisation and service delivery? • Effect is to remove victims’ debate from those with whom it rightly rests.

6. Victims’ Needs and Service Delivery 1. Background • Self-help groups, personal experience of conflict often behind creation of. • Organic quality and capacity of those ‘on the ground’. • Local knowledge and experience valued by service users. • Issues of professionalism and need for support, capacity building and oversight. • Negative effects of insecure and short-term nature of funding. • Ideal is creation of local social economy initiatives.

7. Cont. 2. The Demands and Challenges of Service Delivery: • Neat definitions are impossible! • CVSNI – useful typology: health and well-being; social support; individual financial support; truth, justice and acknowledgement; welfare support; trans-generational issues and the needs of young people; personal and professional development. • Victims groups have evolved in response to need. • Importance of ‘needs based’ approach for practice in community and statutory sectors. • Objective is to change lives, to move people on, not to create dependency. • Idea of an ‘end point’. • Reality: unlikely – need will continue in medium to long term.

8. continued 3. Legacy Issues: • Truth • Formal truth recovery process unlikely. • Yet, for many, the need for truth and acknowledgment of their narratives remains pressing. • Justice • Prosecutorial imperative v. decreasing standard of evidence. • To suggest large numbers of criminal prosecutions unfairly raises victims’ expectations. • ‘Just us’ for justice. • Compensation: • Many bereaved and injured are experiencing significant financial problems. • Delicacy of subject – compensation as ‘the elephant in the room’.

9. continued 4. Areas for further exploration: • Trans-generational trauma. • The needs of the injured.  Vital to delivery of best practice and ensuring ownership of victims’ issues remains with those most directly affected by terrorism and political violence.