Victim Mobilisation as Transformative Local Process after Mass Violence

By understanding participation in transitional justice as the capacity of victims to exercise agency in addressing their needs, this chapter shows how victim mobilisation is a form of participation that can advance victims’ agendas independent of any formal process. Using the lens of critical victimology to both highlight and privilege the agency of victims of violations, we show how relatives of persons missing in Nepal’s armed conflict have successfully renegotiated their relationships with their families, community, and even local government, in ways that impact how they experience victimhood. This shows how collective action and empowerment can serve to drive social change in the everyday spaces that victims occupy in ways that can transform their lives, even though impunity remains institutionalised by the authorities. This reframes participation in transitional justice as something that can be realised largely independent of a formal process.