Some have questioned the compatibility of reparation to victims and the principle of strict proportionality between seriousness of offense and severity of punishment, suggesting that there is relatively little scope for reparative measures in a criminal justice system firmly based on the principle of just deserts. This article defends the reparative principle, arguing that reparation should play a significant role in a criminal justice system based on the human rights of victims as well as offenders. Such a rights-based approach also has an important place for the retributive notion of just deserts, but strict proportionality is rejected in favor of an approach whereby the offender's just deserts set upper and lower limits on the sanctions which may be imposed on the offender. Within these limits there should be scope for both victims and offenders to have a say in the nature, form and amount of reparation. Figure, notes, references