ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the notion of restorative justice as a possible function of domestic human rights prosecutions. It provides the "restorative–retributive justice debate". The chapter draws on some of the theoretical approaches in order to explain the social scope of the trials, which goes beyond the victims themselves to affect their social contexts and relationships. The chapter also provides an overview of the particular features of prosecutions in Argentina, which contribute to amplifying their impact at the local level. It discusses specific changes in local community attitudes towards the survivors and the relatives of the disappeared, both during and after the trials held in their cities. The chapter also discusses how this change in attitudes is accompanied by a decrease in public support for perpetrators. It analyses the advances and limits of "a social framework of reparation", that is, the specific legal, social and political conditions which contribute to the redress of victims of mass human rights violations.
