Reparations, Microfinance, Gender: A Plan, With Strategies for Implementation

43 Pages Posted: 17 Aug 2010 Last revised: 22 Sep 2010

See all articles by Anita Bernstein

Anita Bernstein

Brooklyn Law School

Hans Dieter Seibel

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: September 2010

Abstract

In separate writings the authors have argued that nations planning reparations for human rights violations ought to consider microfinance as a mode of pecuniary transfer. Joining a symposium on gender and violence and responding to calls from readers for more detail on how to install and fund such a plan, this article presents microfinance-based reparations as policy for a national government to consider. It addresses several strategic and practical considerations that an implementing government would face.

Converting benefit payments into shares and deposits and beneficiaries into shareholders of microfinance institutions turns former victims into active partners of aid and owners of sustainable local entities. It also has gender-progressive effects. In many countries, women are already playing a prominent role in self-help groups, informal savings and credit associations, and other types of microfinance institutions on which a reparations plan can build to achieve economic as well as moral-reparative gains following a humanitarian crisis.

Keywords: reparations, microfinance, microcredit, MFI, gender, women, human rights

JEL Classification: H53, O20

Suggested Citation

Bernstein, Anita and Seibel, Hans Dieter, Reparations, Microfinance, Gender: A Plan, With Strategies for Implementation (September 2010). Cornell International Law Journal, Vol. 44, No. 1, 2011, Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 201, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1658723

Anita Bernstein (Contact Author)

Brooklyn Law School ( email )

250 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
United States
718-780-7934 (Phone)

Hans Dieter Seibel

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

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