These payments may or may not be monetary. In South Africa and elsewhere, land restitution is intended to compensate people whose land was confiscated during the Apartheid era. Other forms of compensation or restitution include returning property that was confiscated or stolen, or acknowledging wrong-doing and the victim's suffering through commemorative events.
Compensation can also help prevent conflicts.
It might be a hazardous waste landfill, or a prison, or a factory, or a power plant. People tend to oppose the location of such facilities nearby, where it will potentially emit hazardous materials, add noise and traffic, or otherwise pose a degradation of the neighborhood. This article discusses ways of compensating people for past human rights violations. It also discusses preventive measures that can be taken to prevent a recurrence of such human rights abuses. In this article on transitional justice, Albon asserts that making restitution to victims is a particular potent form of acknowledgement.