Collaboration, Complicity, and Historical Memory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia M. Horne
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Secret Police ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
The Past ◽  
Shed Light

The widespread complicity evident in the post-communist cases complicates approaches to transitional justice because it lays some of the blame on society. Lustration procedures use information in secret police files to shed light on the past. Those files contain information documenting how neighbors, friends, co-workers, and even relatives might have informed on you. There is a potential for such revelations about the scope of the interpersonal and institutional betrayals to undermine social trust and civil society. This chapter explores the problems associated with complicity and transitional justice measures by examining the cases of Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria. The cases highlight how historical memory is affected by negative revelations about the past. These cases illustrate how rising nostalgia can collide with truth telling, forcing the reconsideration and sometimes revision of historical memory.

Can the Past Serve the Present? The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-218
Author(s):  
Megan Liu
Keyword(s):  
Historical Memory ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nanjing Massacre ◽  
Simple Question ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
Shed Light

The memorialization of the Nanjing Massacre, constructed almost fifty years after the event, poses challenges for historians. This article asks the simple question: why? Why has the evolution of memory in China and Japan circumvented the issues of Nanjing for nearly half a century before letting it erupt onto the international stage in the past few decades? By examining the circumstances surrounding the opening of Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall and its ensuing impact, this article not only attempts to shed light on how the memorial has been misconstrued in global historical memory, and the fundamental historiographical debates surrounding it, but also the utility of memory in historical narrative. When dealing with the ghosts of the past in the politics of the present, is it ever possible to purge historiography and memory of government?

Memory and Politics in Democratic Spain

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-61
Author(s):  
Omar G. Encarnación
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Franco Regime ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Right

This chapter explains the persistence of Spain’s ‘politics of forgetting’, a phenomenon revealed by the wilful intent to disremember the political memory of the violence of the Spanish Civil War and the human rights abuses of General Franco’s authoritarian regime. Looking beyond the traumas of the Civil War, the limits on transitional justice and truth-telling on the Franco regime imposed by a transition to democracy anchored on intra-elite pacts, and the conciliatory and forward-looking political culture that consolidated in the new democracy, this analysis emphasizes a decidedly less obvious explanation: the political uses of forgetting. Special attention is paid to how the absence of a reckoning with the past, protected politicians from both the right and the left from embarrassing and inconvenient political histories; facilitated the reinvention of the major political parties as democratic institutions; and lessened societal fears about repeating past historical mistakes. The conclusion of the chapter explains how the success of the current democratic regime, shifting public opinion about the past occasioned by greater awareness about the dark policies and legacies of the Franco regime, and generational change among Spain’s political class have in recent years diminished the political uses of forgetting. This, in turn, has allowed for a more honest treatment of the past in Spain’s public policies.

scholarly journals The Development of Civil Society in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Pierobon
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The Past ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Development Trajectory ◽  
Low Levels

In the past two decades, scholars from a variety of disciplines have argued that post – communist civil society is weak and structurally deficient and is characterised by low levels of social trust, voluntary organisational membership, and public participation. This article intends to challenge this academic consensus by providing an in-depth analysis of civil society development in Kyrgyzstan, a country, whose non-profit sector has been described as the most vibrant and plentiful of the Central Asian region. To this scope, the article analyses the ways and extent to which the national and international environments have influenced the development trajectory of Kyrgyz civil society. Special emphasis is placed on the specific forms and manifestations of civic engagement characterising the non-profit sector of the selected country and on the strategies it has implemented to overcome its weaknesses and vulnerabilities. The paper sheds new light on factors and features that have contributed to the strengths of Kyrgyz civil society and which can be used to increase our understanding of civil society developments in other transition countries.

scholarly journals Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in the Western Balkans: Approaches, Impacts and Challenges

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huma Haider
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Meaningful Change ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
The Past ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Alternative Sites ◽  
Modes Of Engagement

Countries in the Western Balkans have engaged in various transitional justice and reconciliation initiatives to address the legacy of the wars of the 1990s and the deep political and societal divisions that persist. There is growing consensus among scholars and practitioners that in order to foster meaningful change, transitional justice must extend beyond trials (the dominant international mechanism in the region) and be more firmly anchored in affected communities with alternative sites, safe spaces, and modes of engagement. This rapid literature review presents a sample of initiatives, spanning a range of sectors and fields – truth-telling, art and culture, memorialisation, dialogue and education – that have achieved a level of success in contributing to processes of reconciliation, most frequently at the community level. It draws primarily from recent studies, published in the past five years. Much of the literature available centres on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), with some examples also drawn from Serbia, Kosovo and North Macedonia.

scholarly journals Transitional Justice in South Africa and Brazil: Introducing a Gendered Approach to Reconciliation

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-107
Author(s):  
G. Nelaeva ◽  
N. Sidorova
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
General Question ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
The Past ◽  
Formal Procedure ◽  
Post War

The concept of transitional justice has been associated with the periods of political change when a country emerges from a war or turmoil and attempts to address the wrongdoings of the past. Among various instruments of transitional justice, truth commissions stand out as an example of a non-judicial form of addressing the crimes of the past. While their setup and operation can be criticized on different grounds, including excessive politization of hearings and the virtual impossibility of meaningfully assessing their impact, it has been widely acknowledged in the literature that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa can be regarded as a success story due to its relatively strong mandate and widespread coverage and resonance it had in South African society. We would like to compare this commission from the 1990s with a more recent example, the Brazilian National Truth Commission, so as to be able to address the question of incorporation of gendered aspects in transitional justice (including examination of sexual violence cases, representation of women in truth-telling bodies, etc.), since gender often remains an overlooked and silenced aspect in such initiatives. Gendered narratives of transitional justice often do not fit into the wider narratives of post-war reconciliation. A more general question addressed in this research is whether the lack of formal procedure in truth commissions facilitates or hinders examination of sexual crimes in transitional settings.

In Pursuit of Policies of ‘Reconciliation’ from an Intransigent State: An Exercise in Folly?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shari Eppel
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
State Violence ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The Past ◽  
Power Base ◽  
History Of ◽  
Causes Of Violence ◽  
Peace And Reconciliation

Zimbabwe has had only one real transition of power, at independence in 1980. Since then, Zimbabwe has had a long history of (selectively) drawing lines through the past and of extreme political intolerance. The ruling party ZANU-PF has acted ruthlessly against any political opposition—first in the 1980s, when many thousands of civilians in the west of the country were massacred during the deployment of a special brigade, targeted at the support base of ZAPU, then the dominant political party in that region. Systematic repression and torture in this region led to the first semi-transition in 1987, with the Unity Accord. The uneasy peace was broken again in 2000, with the rise of the MDC, and once more violence was unleashed to ensure ZANU-PF retained its increasingly militarized power base. A government of national unity and a coup marked further semi-transitions. These multiple eras of state violence and semi-transitions have all been accompanied by calls for initiatives to promote ‘peace’ and ‘reconciliation’ as well as justice but official truth telling has proved elusive. However, the semi-transition resulting from the coup of November 2017 may have shifted the space to talk about the past: the constitutionally mandated National Peace and Reconciliation Commission finally achieved legislative backing in 2018, and may offer opportunities for transitional justice initiatives. Importantly, the underlying structural causes of violence and repression, dating back to colonial times, need to be addressed. Truth telling alone will not ensure a more tolerant future.

Perspectives on memory, forgiveness and reconciliation in Cambodia's post-Khmer Rouge society

2019 ◽  
Vol 101 (910) ◽  
pp. 125-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phuong N. Pham ◽  
Mychelle Balthazard ◽  
Niamh Gibbons ◽  
Patrick Vinck
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Limited Knowledge ◽  
The Past ◽  
To Come ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Khmer Rouge Regime

AbstractTransitional justice is a conspicuous feature of responses to mass atrocities. Rooted in accountability and redress for victims, transitional justice mechanisms influence and are influenced by collective memory of conflicts. This article looks at the dynamics between memory, trauma and forgiveness in Cambodia. Thirty years after the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodians expressed limited knowledge of the past, a strong desire for the truth, and lingering feelings of hatred. The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) created or renewed demand for truth, along with some desire for harm to come to the wrongdoers. Although the ECCC was set up several decades after the mass atrocities, the data suggest that the ECCC and the civil society movement associated with it may have had positive outcomes on addressing the legacy of the violence.

scholarly journals Literature and lustration: Rebuilding social trust through literature

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
European Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Categorical Responses ◽  
To Come ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
Legal Processes

How do nations, communities and individuals seek to restore individual meaning, social justice and social trust in the wake of traumatic histories? While international legal models have underpinned the processes of lustration in ex-communist countries, other forms of coming to terms with the past have contributed to the rebuilding of social trust in these environments. Literature has taken a role both in preparing the ground for more formal politico-legal processes, and in problematizing single-answer, simplistic or categorical responses to the complex issues of guilt, responsibility, complicity, victimhood and suffering in these societies. The significant new role that European literature has taken since the Holocaust is to come to terms with the past as a record not merely as a history, but as a responsibility and thereby to participate in the processes of lustration and rebuilding of civil society that have formed contemporary Europe.

scholarly journals ‘Does the truth pass across the fire without burning?’ Locating the short circuit in Rwanda's Gacaca courts

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bert Ingelaere
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Core Values ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Different Levels

ABSTRACTThe modernised tradition of the Gacaca courts has become the key mechanism for dealing with the past in Rwanda. The process needs to establish accountability for all acts of genocide and to foster reconciliation. Nevertheless, popular narratives and survey results reveal that a widespread ‘crisis’ accompanied the initial stages of the Gacaca process. We argue that a problematic quest for the truth is short-circuiting reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda. Truth-telling is the cornerstone of the transitional justice framework due to the design of the Gacaca tribunals. On the basis of twenty months of fieldwork in Rwandan villages, we locate tensions at different levels. The Gacaca system is a distinctively modern phenomenon despite its traditional appearance. The state-sanctioned speaking of the truth according to a prosecutorial logic runs counter to the core values of the customary institution and established societal practices. This friction is further enhanced by the underlying Judeo-Christian model of truth-telling introduced with the Gacaca system in a socio-political environment mediated by a culture of deceit and dominated by a war victor. In such a socio-cultural context, communication serves the interests of the power holders (national and local), and not necessarily the interest of truth-telling and justice.

scholarly journals ROLE OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY FOR ECONOMY

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 3-15
Author(s):  
Iryna Tkachuk
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Functional Model ◽  
The State ◽  
The Past ◽  
Functional Models ◽  
Business Family ◽  
Shed Light

The aim of the article is to shed light upon the essence and functions of the civil society, as well as to outline the features of its functioning. The article considers the views of thinkers of the past and modernity on the essence and significance of civil society, which formed the basis of a modern understanding of its content and role in the development of democracy and society. Also, modern approaches to the interpretation of the content of this concept were reviewed. It is revealed, that those approaches to the interpretation of the civil society of thinkers of the past and present, which take into account its component as economy, were and remain the most studied and time-consuming ones, and eventually do not lose their relevance. The main functional models of civil society are highlighted. It is justified, that the extended functional model, formed on the basis of the models of Merkel-Lauth and Edwards, more fully reflects the functions, performed by the civil society. Different models of interaction of civil society, state, business, family are investigated. It is proposed to consider the civil society as an environment that enables the interaction of the state, business and family in accordance with their natural functioning.

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