On Waiting and Hoping: Psycho Social Aspects in Transitional Justice Processes

Abstract

This paper is a product of the inter- and transcultural applied work in the field of gender-based violence (it reats particularly cases of women who have been sexually violated in a systematic manner) and the reflection of both authors when working with victims of sociopolitical violence and human rights abuses. It makes particular emphasis en examining how people from different professional backgrounds center their work differently, sometimes with a focus that falls far from the needs of the survivors themselves. Our main goal is to illustrate the different disciplinary approaches of law and psychosocial accompaniment in the processes in which the victims/survivors engage, as part of their search for justice, and the impacts these different lenses and timings might have on women themselves. The methodology is an interdisciplinary reflection (psychology, social work, humanitarian action and sociology) based on field work done with a group of women who survived sexual abuses in the northern coast of Colombia (but it also considers some cross-cultural comparisons with other cases of gender-based violence). This experience aims at examining and elaborating on the individual and collective damage of the various cases of women who were abused. This was accomplished through individual interviews, focus groups, ethnographic data recollection, and team-work with the lawyers in charge of the case. Our final conclusion highlights the need to improve the coordination between the various professionals and professional disciplines dealing with the cases, by listening better and becoming more aware of the genuine needs of the survivors/victims as they expressed them.