Democratic reconstruction and impunity

In Chile, there exists a great debate in relation to what is the best way for democratic reconstruction; if justice should be applied to humans rights violations or if it should be chosen for reconciliation.

On the one hand, the importance of acknowledging the rights of the disappeared (desaparecidos) and executed, for family members, are pointed out; knowing what occurred to their relatives and receiving justice in order to repair all the damage caused. On the other hand, it is argued that the violations of human rights are past problems, due to an institutional crisis, and we can overcome them with forgetfulness and forgiveness.

We consider that these approaches reduce the problem to a conflict between victims and perpetrators, which is impossible to resolve. They do not take into account the effects of impunity on the subjectivity and the relationships of the population. At the same time, this excludes people that are not identified with the victims or perpetrators from the discussion.

Based on our experience with community programs devoted to the problems of young people, we analysed the effects of impunity on the young people's capacity to trust others, to maintain relationships, to belong to social organisations and to have personal and social projects of development and change.

Finally, we suggest some guidelines for addressing the effects of impunity through community programs, because we believe, that despite the recent changes in the problems of human rights, they will continue to affect our society.