Whereas victims’ rights and demands have gained attention in the practice and scholarship of transitional justice (TJ), victims are at best consultees and witnesses, not decision-makers. Victims’ participation as political actors, and the impact of sociopolitical participation on survivors, is still an under-researched area in TJ. This article provides an analysis of how victims’ participation is given shape in the everyday functioning of Colombia’s Victims’ Law. The Victims’ Law offers an excellent case to examine this issue, since it provides an ongoing and ambitious TJ mechanism with a detailed framework for participation. This allows for a better understanding of this phenomenon in practice, beyond the understanding of victim-centred transitional justice as the mere presence of victims. This article critically engages with victim-centred TJ theories which are based on long-held assumptions of how participation will lead to participation, ownership and citizenship. It moreover explores the impact on victims of that participation throughout the different phases of non-judicial TJ procedures. It asks whether their engagement means that TJ processes indeed respond better to victims’ needs, whether victims feel a greater ownership of these processes as a result, and whether victims even want to participate. It concludes by reflecting on the implications for victim-centred TJ, by explaining that participation should privilege genuinely participatory processes which take survivors and their agency as a starting point. This requires recognizing and building upon victims’ pre-existent internal organizational and decision-making processes and time frames, to create a more horizontal way of relating.

中文翻译：

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超越受害者的存在：哥伦比亚过渡时期司法中受害者参与的实证分析

虽然受害者的权利和要求在过渡时期司法 (TJ) 的实践和学术中得到了关注，但受害者充其量只是咨询者和证人，而不是决策者。受害者作为政治参与者的参与，以及社会政治参与对幸存者的影响，仍然是 TJ 研究不足的领域。本文分析了受害者参与如何在哥伦比亚受害者法的日常运作中形成。受害者法提供了一个很好的案例来研究这个问题，因为它提供了一个持续的和雄心勃勃的 TJ 机制，以及一个详细的参与框架。这有助于在实践中更好地理解这一现象，而不仅仅是将以受害者为中心的过渡司法理解为受害者的存在。本文批判性地探讨了以受害者为中心的 TJ 理论，这些理论基于长期以来关于参与将如何导致参与、所有权和公民身份的假设。此外，它还探讨了在非司法 TJ 程序的不同阶段对这种参与的受害者的影响。它询问他们的参与是否意味着 TJ 过程确实更好地响应了受害者的需求，受害者是否因此对这些过程有更大的自主权，以及受害者是否甚至想要参与。最后，它反思了对以受害者为中心的 TJ 的影响，解释说参与应该优先考虑以幸存者及其代理为起点的真正参与过程。