Pub Date : 2021-10-20DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2021.1977919
J. Schaafsma, Marieke Zoodsma, Thia Sagherian-Dickey
Abstract Over the past decades, an increasing number of countries have apologized for human rights violations in the recent or distant past. Although this has led to considerable debate about the value and meaning of apologies and their potential as a transformative mechanism, little is known about how countries across the world try to address and redress past wrongdoings in these statements. Relying on a database of apologies that have been offered worldwide by states or state representatives for human rights violations, we identified various rhetorical strategies that diverse countries use—to varying degrees—to (1) break from or acknowledge past wrongdoings, (2) bridge past wrongdoings with future intentions, and (3) bond with the intended recipients of the apology. In this article, we shed light on the strategies we identified in this regard. In doing so, we show how countries and their representatives use apologies not only or necessarily to address the needs of victims or their relatives, but also to portray and understand themselves, whereby there is substantial overlap in the types of rhetorical strategies and scripts that they use to accomplish this.
{"title":"Closing chapters of the past? Rhetorical strategies in political apologies for human rights violations across the world","authors":"J. Schaafsma, Marieke Zoodsma, Thia Sagherian-Dickey","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2021.1977919","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2021.1977919","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Over the past decades, an increasing number of countries have apologized for human rights violations in the recent or distant past. Although this has led to considerable debate about the value and meaning of apologies and their potential as a transformative mechanism, little is known about how countries across the world try to address and redress past wrongdoings in these statements. Relying on a database of apologies that have been offered worldwide by states or state representatives for human rights violations, we identified various rhetorical strategies that diverse countries use—to varying degrees—to (1) break from or acknowledge past wrongdoings, (2) bridge past wrongdoings with future intentions, and (3) bond with the intended recipients of the apology. In this article, we shed light on the strategies we identified in this regard. In doing so, we show how countries and their representatives use apologies not only or necessarily to address the needs of victims or their relatives, but also to portray and understand themselves, whereby there is substantial overlap in the types of rhetorical strategies and scripts that they use to accomplish this.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46794134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-20DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2021.1981258
Emma Dolan
Abstract This article focuses on the performative recognition offered to victims through political apologies for conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). It engages with understandings of political apology as an act of acknowledgment and moral visibility that has the capacity to further include marginalized accounts of violence or injustice within exclusive national histories/memberships. I introduce feminist understandings of visibility as ambivalent alongside a differential politics of “grievability” in order to suggest that political apologies must always recognize and make visible particular accounts of violence and subject positions; however, they simultaneously obscure others. I problematize the gendered and gendering effects of this process in relation to two cases of apology for CRSV: the Japanese imperial “comfort women” and the US Abu Ghraib torture scandal during the Global War on Terror (GWoT).
{"title":"The gendered politics of recognition and recognizability through political apology","authors":"Emma Dolan","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2021.1981258","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2021.1981258","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article focuses on the performative recognition offered to victims through political apologies for conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). It engages with understandings of political apology as an act of acknowledgment and moral visibility that has the capacity to further include marginalized accounts of violence or injustice within exclusive national histories/memberships. I introduce feminist understandings of visibility as ambivalent alongside a differential politics of “grievability” in order to suggest that political apologies must always recognize and make visible particular accounts of violence and subject positions; however, they simultaneously obscure others. I problematize the gendered and gendering effects of this process in relation to two cases of apology for CRSV: the Japanese imperial “comfort women” and the US Abu Ghraib torture scandal during the Global War on Terror (GWoT).","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47713095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-20DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2021.1979389
Mark Gibney
World history has long confirmed Thucydides’ observation that “the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must.” Yet, starting more than a quarter century ago, the “strong” began to do something that powerful states had never done before—namely, apologizing to the “weak” for harms committed against them in the past. Although this was heralded as the Age of Apology, there was every reason to believe this would be a fleeting affair, best serving the inflated egos of “New Age” politicians such as Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. One obvious reason to question the staying power of political apologies was that this was contrary to literally centuries of state practice. Another reason, and perhaps a more practical one, was that the weak have no means to make the strong do anything, let alone apologize. Yet, just the opposite has taken place. Rather than dying a natural death and returning to a status quo in which powerful states answered to no one—not even to themselves—what has happened is that not only have political apologies become common but it is now the absence of a state apology that often will raise questions. Along with the rise of political apologies has been academic analysis of this phenomenon. It would not be possible to summarize anywhere near the scope of this scholarship. Still, one overriding question that serves as the underlying basis for so many of the books and articles that have been written on political apologies to date is this: Do political apologies really mean anything? Some scholars are of the mind that the veritable explosion in state apologies over the past few decades is evidence of a new international ethos, whereas others see little, if any, change in international relations and therefore conclude that many, if not all, political apologies are little more than cynical political ploys dressed up in high-sounding language purely for domestic consumption. Of course, it is possible that both points of view are correct. What follows are three articles that were presented at the online workshop, “Political Apologies for Historical Wrongs,” hosted by the University of Aberdeen in February 2021, which brought together some of the leading authorities on state apologies. In addition to the outstanding scholarship on display, one of the more useful aspects of these articles is how differently they approach this subject. Given their ubiquity, one of the problems in studying political apologies has simply been keeping track of them. Of course, some apologies are given with great fanfare and ceremony, but others are done more in the shadows, perhaps reflecting the degree of sincerity with which the apology is being given. For decades, Rhoda Howard-Hassmann performed the unenviable job of constructing and maintaining a public website cataloging all (known) state apologies. This task has now been handed over to Juliette Schaafsma, Marieke Zoodsma, Thia Sagherian-Dickey, and others at Tilburg University and is described mor
{"title":"Introduction to a symposium on political apologies","authors":"Mark Gibney","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2021.1979389","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2021.1979389","url":null,"abstract":"World history has long confirmed Thucydides’ observation that “the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must.” Yet, starting more than a quarter century ago, the “strong” began to do something that powerful states had never done before—namely, apologizing to the “weak” for harms committed against them in the past. Although this was heralded as the Age of Apology, there was every reason to believe this would be a fleeting affair, best serving the inflated egos of “New Age” politicians such as Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. One obvious reason to question the staying power of political apologies was that this was contrary to literally centuries of state practice. Another reason, and perhaps a more practical one, was that the weak have no means to make the strong do anything, let alone apologize. Yet, just the opposite has taken place. Rather than dying a natural death and returning to a status quo in which powerful states answered to no one—not even to themselves—what has happened is that not only have political apologies become common but it is now the absence of a state apology that often will raise questions. Along with the rise of political apologies has been academic analysis of this phenomenon. It would not be possible to summarize anywhere near the scope of this scholarship. Still, one overriding question that serves as the underlying basis for so many of the books and articles that have been written on political apologies to date is this: Do political apologies really mean anything? Some scholars are of the mind that the veritable explosion in state apologies over the past few decades is evidence of a new international ethos, whereas others see little, if any, change in international relations and therefore conclude that many, if not all, political apologies are little more than cynical political ploys dressed up in high-sounding language purely for domestic consumption. Of course, it is possible that both points of view are correct. What follows are three articles that were presented at the online workshop, “Political Apologies for Historical Wrongs,” hosted by the University of Aberdeen in February 2021, which brought together some of the leading authorities on state apologies. In addition to the outstanding scholarship on display, one of the more useful aspects of these articles is how differently they approach this subject. Given their ubiquity, one of the problems in studying political apologies has simply been keeping track of them. Of course, some apologies are given with great fanfare and ceremony, but others are done more in the shadows, perhaps reflecting the degree of sincerity with which the apology is being given. For decades, Rhoda Howard-Hassmann performed the unenviable job of constructing and maintaining a public website cataloging all (known) state apologies. This task has now been handed over to Juliette Schaafsma, Marieke Zoodsma, Thia Sagherian-Dickey, and others at Tilburg University and is described mor","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43766211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-20DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2021.1953966
Laura García Martín
Abstract This article explores how justice mechanisms could serve to advance corporate accountability in transitional justice. In doing so, Argentina will act as a case study. Therefore, it first explores how corporate accountability for human rights abuses can be addressed in transitional justice, specifically focusing on justice mechanisms and including examples of previous experiences. It also provides relevant insights from the international framework of business and human rights in order to examine how this field has contributed to developing international standards for corporate-related human rights abuses in transition. Based on this background, the article reviews the context of the last Argentinian dictatorship and corporate involvement in human rights abuses perpetrated. Next, it analyses how the transitional justice process in Argentina has dealt with this issue, particularly regarding domestic prosecutions to corporate managers. Finally, the article offers some concluding considerations and suggestions for the way forward.
{"title":"Overcoming corporate-related human rights abuses in transitional justice: Lights and shadows from the case of Argentina","authors":"Laura García Martín","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2021.1953966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2021.1953966","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article explores how justice mechanisms could serve to advance corporate accountability in transitional justice. In doing so, Argentina will act as a case study. Therefore, it first explores how corporate accountability for human rights abuses can be addressed in transitional justice, specifically focusing on justice mechanisms and including examples of previous experiences. It also provides relevant insights from the international framework of business and human rights in order to examine how this field has contributed to developing international standards for corporate-related human rights abuses in transition. Based on this background, the article reviews the context of the last Argentinian dictatorship and corporate involvement in human rights abuses perpetrated. Next, it analyses how the transitional justice process in Argentina has dealt with this issue, particularly regarding domestic prosecutions to corporate managers. Finally, the article offers some concluding considerations and suggestions for the way forward.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46912616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-13DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2021.1971071
C. Radavoi, O. Quirico
Abstract Large-scale lockdowns imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic may amount to a breach of the right to work in its quantitative component: the right of everyone to have at least the opportunity to find a job. Given the current diminution of the job market with the advent of artificial intelligence, and taking into account the systemic risks to employment in the global economy, the right to work’s “minimum core”—a concept enshrined in the social, cultural, and economic rights doctrine—could be affected by policies leading to mass unemployment. Even if lockdowns do not affect the core of the right to work, to be acceptable, they must be the least restrictive policies required by the circumstances, which has to be decided by a careful balancing of the alternatives. This article argues that countries that chose to “go early and go hard” might have circumvented the balancing requirement.
{"title":"Socioeconomic rights in the age of pandemics: Covid-19 large-scale lockdowns have exposed the weakness of the right to work","authors":"C. Radavoi, O. Quirico","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2021.1971071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2021.1971071","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Large-scale lockdowns imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic may amount to a breach of the right to work in its quantitative component: the right of everyone to have at least the opportunity to find a job. Given the current diminution of the job market with the advent of artificial intelligence, and taking into account the systemic risks to employment in the global economy, the right to work’s “minimum core”—a concept enshrined in the social, cultural, and economic rights doctrine—could be affected by policies leading to mass unemployment. Even if lockdowns do not affect the core of the right to work, to be acceptable, they must be the least restrictive policies required by the circumstances, which has to be decided by a careful balancing of the alternatives. This article argues that countries that chose to “go early and go hard” might have circumvented the balancing requirement.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2021-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46846178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-13DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2021.1969226
Nazli Pinar Kaymaz
Abstract Although an extensive literature on the British idealist theory of human rights exists, it is limited by its focus on prominent British idealist philosophers and its predominant interest in civic and political rights. This article broadens our understanding of the subject by examining the lesser-known British idealist John Stuart Mackenzie’s work on economic and social human rights. Mackenzie’s reflections on the matter appear to be significant as an early example of employing human rights language as a solution to widespread poverty and destitution in Britain. His use of a tripartite idealist perception of human nature allows Mackenzie to underline the complexity of human potential and human need that must be protected in all spheres of social interaction. In light of ongoing challenges to the legitimacy of economic and social rights as human rights, Mackenzie’s work constitutes a solid example of a maximalist approach to human rights that aims to not merely ensure survival but leads to the realization of a truly human life.
{"title":"Broadening the British idealist approach to human rights: J. S. Mackenzie’s list of political, economic, and social rights","authors":"Nazli Pinar Kaymaz","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2021.1969226","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2021.1969226","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Although an extensive literature on the British idealist theory of human rights exists, it is limited by its focus on prominent British idealist philosophers and its predominant interest in civic and political rights. This article broadens our understanding of the subject by examining the lesser-known British idealist John Stuart Mackenzie’s work on economic and social human rights. Mackenzie’s reflections on the matter appear to be significant as an early example of employing human rights language as a solution to widespread poverty and destitution in Britain. His use of a tripartite idealist perception of human nature allows Mackenzie to underline the complexity of human potential and human need that must be protected in all spheres of social interaction. In light of ongoing challenges to the legitimacy of economic and social rights as human rights, Mackenzie’s work constitutes a solid example of a maximalist approach to human rights that aims to not merely ensure survival but leads to the realization of a truly human life.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2021-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41633356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-08DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2021.1971070
Samuel Martínez
Abstract Today’s antitrafficking movement situates the crimes against which it struggles as invisible and possibly unknowable, even as anti-antitrafficking skeptics question the reliability of widely cited trafficking prevalence estimates. Behind this controversy, an important question has been omitted: If verifiable data are lacking, how has a sense of urgency been built around modern slavery’s alleged omnipresence? The websites of leading new abolitionist organizations provide a basis for a critical reading of today’s antislavery discourse. Expositions of the wrongs toggle between narrative-based/emotive and evidence-based/rational modes. The first evokes the hiddenness and hence unknowability of the wrongs. The second exhorts readers/viewers to ignore doubt and support antislavery action in spite of not knowing against what. More than sheer ambivalence, then, an imagetextual art is built by new abolitionist websites, capitalizing on the esthetic principle that not knowing is more alluring to the eye than is knowing.
{"title":"To know in the subjunctive: New abolitionist imagetexts and the specter of modern slavery","authors":"Samuel Martínez","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2021.1971070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2021.1971070","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Today’s antitrafficking movement situates the crimes against which it struggles as invisible and possibly unknowable, even as anti-antitrafficking skeptics question the reliability of widely cited trafficking prevalence estimates. Behind this controversy, an important question has been omitted: If verifiable data are lacking, how has a sense of urgency been built around modern slavery’s alleged omnipresence? The websites of leading new abolitionist organizations provide a basis for a critical reading of today’s antislavery discourse. Expositions of the wrongs toggle between narrative-based/emotive and evidence-based/rational modes. The first evokes the hiddenness and hence unknowability of the wrongs. The second exhorts readers/viewers to ignore doubt and support antislavery action in spite of not knowing against what. More than sheer ambivalence, then, an imagetextual art is built by new abolitionist websites, capitalizing on the esthetic principle that not knowing is more alluring to the eye than is knowing.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2021-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48983735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-08DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2021.1969648
M. Velarde, J. Lord, M. Stein, T. Shakespeare
Abstract This article examines whether and how the circumstances of Colombian ex-combatants with disabilities were recognized in the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) processes in the period following the adoption of the 2016 peace agreement. Our results suggest severe procedural and substantive shortcomings during the drafting of the peace agreement and the implementation of the DDR processes that exacerbated the exclusion of ex-combatants with disabilities from available opportunities for their social, economic, and political reintegration. We conclude that a better understanding of the disabling impact of conflict and the experiences of impairment and disability could have mitigated such neglect.
{"title":"Disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration in Colombia: Lost human rights opportunities for ex-combatants with disabilities","authors":"M. Velarde, J. Lord, M. Stein, T. Shakespeare","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2021.1969648","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2021.1969648","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article examines whether and how the circumstances of Colombian ex-combatants with disabilities were recognized in the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) processes in the period following the adoption of the 2016 peace agreement. Our results suggest severe procedural and substantive shortcomings during the drafting of the peace agreement and the implementation of the DDR processes that exacerbated the exclusion of ex-combatants with disabilities from available opportunities for their social, economic, and political reintegration. We conclude that a better understanding of the disabling impact of conflict and the experiences of impairment and disability could have mitigated such neglect.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2021-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41969974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-24DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2021.1947207
D. Subedi, Gordon Nanau, D. Magar
Abstract This article examines the politics of human rights in Pacific Island Countries (PICs). It expands the focus from “culture” to “institutions” to analyze how PICs have engaged with the international human rights regime. We reveal that although the Pacific Island Countries have ratified more international human rights treaties and engaged proactively with the international human rights regime in recent years, this shift has not substantially led to accountability necessary to protect, respect, and promote human rights. To unpack this contradiction, we propose an analytical approach, what we call, an “institutional logic.” Using the institutional logic, we argue that the current situation of human rights in PICs is primarily determined by the presence or absence of necessary institutional arrangements pertaining to rights. Thus, we conclude by suggesting that significant institutional reforms are indispensable for protecting and promoting human rights in PICs.
{"title":"From a ‘cultural logic’ to an ‘institutional logic’: The politics of human rights in Pacific Island Countries","authors":"D. Subedi, Gordon Nanau, D. Magar","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2021.1947207","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2021.1947207","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article examines the politics of human rights in Pacific Island Countries (PICs). It expands the focus from “culture” to “institutions” to analyze how PICs have engaged with the international human rights regime. We reveal that although the Pacific Island Countries have ratified more international human rights treaties and engaged proactively with the international human rights regime in recent years, this shift has not substantially led to accountability necessary to protect, respect, and promote human rights. To unpack this contradiction, we propose an analytical approach, what we call, an “institutional logic.” Using the institutional logic, we argue that the current situation of human rights in PICs is primarily determined by the presence or absence of necessary institutional arrangements pertaining to rights. Thus, we conclude by suggesting that significant institutional reforms are indispensable for protecting and promoting human rights in PICs.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2021-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43540325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-08DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2021.1979388
T. Bentley
Abstract After human rights violations, states frequently employ the discourse of “closure” or “drawing a line under the past” as an exculpatory device that situates the wrongdoing in an ontologically discreet and normatively inferior past, a maneuver I term “performative temporal segregation.” Recognizing the United Kingdom’s 2010 apology for Bloody Sunday as an example of temporal segregation, I draw on interviews with relatives of Bloody Sunday victims and other stakeholders to examine how the apology’s recipients have variously resisted and embraced the performative segregating of time. Although many relatives remain enthusiastic about the apology, temporal segregation is challenged by others in three ways: (1) by deriding the apology, (2) by framing it as a stepping stone toward justice rather than an endpoint, and (3) by critically reassessing it over time. I thereby demonstrate that victims and governments can have irreconcilable conceptions of the purpose of apology as a transitional justice mechanism. Nevertheless, participants almost universally embraced closure as a desirable and achievable objective, primarily through prosecutions. This, ironically, entails recognizing that the colonial state can dispense justice and arbitrate on temporality.
{"title":"A line under the past: Performative temporal segregation in transitional justice","authors":"T. Bentley","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2021.1979388","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2021.1979388","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract After human rights violations, states frequently employ the discourse of “closure” or “drawing a line under the past” as an exculpatory device that situates the wrongdoing in an ontologically discreet and normatively inferior past, a maneuver I term “performative temporal segregation.” Recognizing the United Kingdom’s 2010 apology for Bloody Sunday as an example of temporal segregation, I draw on interviews with relatives of Bloody Sunday victims and other stakeholders to examine how the apology’s recipients have variously resisted and embraced the performative segregating of time. Although many relatives remain enthusiastic about the apology, temporal segregation is challenged by others in three ways: (1) by deriding the apology, (2) by framing it as a stepping stone toward justice rather than an endpoint, and (3) by critically reassessing it over time. I thereby demonstrate that victims and governments can have irreconcilable conceptions of the purpose of apology as a transitional justice mechanism. Nevertheless, participants almost universally embraced closure as a desirable and achievable objective, primarily through prosecutions. This, ironically, entails recognizing that the colonial state can dispense justice and arbitrate on temporality.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2021-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48019011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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