Do the victims of terrorist attacks have rights, including the right to compensation? The answer depends very much on where the attack takes place and the nationality of the victim, says Professor Rianne Letschert, the research director of the International Victimology Institute in Tilburg in the Netherlands.
 Professor Rianne Letschert, Research Director of the Victimology Institute in Tilburg, the Netherlands |
"Victims of crime have a right to compensation. This has been laid down in various international victims' rights instruments adopted by the United Nations and regional organisations such as the European Union." says Ms Letschert
But many countries have not included these provisions in their national legislation, effectively leaving the victims and survivors of terrorist attacks empty-handed.
9/11
The United States is one of the nations that does not have a system in place to compensate terror victims, says Professor Letschert. Instead, it acts on an ad hoc basis. A case in point, she says, is the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, set up by the US Congress in the wake of the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The main purpose of the fund, says Professor Letschert, was to protect the airline industry, security companies and other firms at the World Trade Centre in New York from crippling litigation.
Had the fund not been established, says Professor Letschert, there was a real risk that parts of the US economy would collapse."Victims could apply for compensation from the fund, but they had to renounce their right to sue the airlines. That's what a lot of victims did because they knew they would be heard and they would get their money much faster than if they went to the courts. So the fund really had nothing to do with the people. It was just economics".
The 9/11 fund paid out more than €4.5 billion to the relatives of the nearly 2900 people who were killed and the 2680 people who were injured in the attacks or the ensuing rescue efforts. The awards ranged from €325 to €4.6 million.
US embassy bombing
Victims of other terrorist attacks have received little or no compensation. Many of the survivors and family members of the al Qaeda attack on the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998, for instance, received payments of between €260 and €5900. But others, like Naomi Kerongo [link to her story], say they received nothing.
Other avenues
According to Professor Letschert, the reason they haven't received more money is that the Kenyan government has not accepted its responsibility for compensating the victims. She believes, though, that there are other avenues the victims could pursue to try to file a claim. They could file claims, for instance, against Sudan or Iran for their alleged responsibility in the attacks, but she admits that such a case would be difficult to prove in a court of law and could take years to resolve.
Another possibility is to file a claim against the American government. Some of the victims believe that the United States was negligent in locating its embassy in downtown Nairobi. But the United States has so far rejected this, and for these claims to be successful, they would have to be submitted by the Kenyan government rather than by the victims. But Professor Letschert thinks this highly unlikely: "I don't believe Kenya will ever take that path because of a lot of diplomatic and trade reasons."
International compensation
Next month the United Nations will organise a major conference for the victims of terrorism. Professor Letschert says:
"Its aim is to provide a forum for victims of such attacks from all over the world as well as to encourage the United Nations to set up an international fund for victims of terrorism who are not able to submit claims to their national government". But this solution does have its drawbacks, admits Professor Letschert.
"If such an international fund were created, then governments would feel no obligation to set up national funds. It would be a good argument for them not to do anything on the domestic level".
Tags: 9/11, Nairobi, Rianne Letschert, September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, terrorist attacks, US Congress, victims