Symbolic Reparations: Guidelines for State and International Human Rights Courts on Memorialization Practices.

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) regularly legislates states to undertake comprehensive programs of reparations to victims of gross human rights violations. Central to this mandate is a category of “symbolic reparation” which seeks to ensure the preservation of historical memory, the restoration of victims’ dignity and guarantee the non-repetition of violence. Yet at present, the IACHR has neither a set of comprehensive guidelines, nor a developed concept regarding how memorialization and its attendant commemorative practices can operate to promote reconciliation and social transformation. And the centrality of art and aesthetics –the visual and symbolic forms at the very heart of memorialization—has largely been ignored. In light of this, the Symbolic Reparations Research Project has developed a set of Guidelines on Symbolic Reparations, aimed at advising the IACHR and State human rights courts on harnessing the potential of art in relation to public memorialization to address the experience of a traumatic past and to construct a democratic future based on respect for human rights. Presented by the Symbolic Reparations Research Project (SRRP) in partnership with the Cultural Agents Initiative, this panel will introduce and contextualize the SRRP’s Guidelines on Symbolic Reparations currently being submitted to the IACHR.

Sub Track

• Art, Architecture and Visual Culture

Session Organizer

• Jose Luis Falconi, Harvard University

Chair

• Jose Luis Falconi, Harvard University

Individual Presentations

• “Guidelines on the Use of Art in Symbolic Reparations” - Jose Luis Falconi, Harvard University

• “Sites of Conscience: Symbolic Reparations and Memorialization Practices in Colombia” - Ana Maria Reyes, Boston University

• “Does Collective Commemoration of a Divisive Past Impede Social Reconciliation?” - Michael Orwicz, University of Connecticut

• “Symbolic Reparations and Aesthetic Memorialization – Some Issues for the Courts” - Robin Adele Greeley, University of Connecticut

Discussant

• Doris Sommer, Harvard University