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Summary

du Plessis, Max and Pete, Stephen (2007). Reparations for Gross Violations of Human Rights in Context In Max du Plessis and Stephen Pete, ed., Repairing the Past? International Perspectives on Reparations for Gross Human Rights Abuses. Oxford, UK: Intersentia. Pp. 3-28.

"A work such as this is not able to do justice to a topic as broad as that set out in the title i.e reparations for gross human rights abuses. The main focus of this book, the central shocking social fact which gives rise to all the nuanced legal and political debates discussed in this work, is that human beings are capable of treating other human beings with unspeakable cruelty. If this book has a heart, it lies in the recognition of the fact that both ancient and recent human history is littered with examples of widespread and gross violations of human rights....The sheer extent of the past and present abuses of human rights makes it impossible for the topic of reparations for such abuses to be dealt with in one short book." (abstract)

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