scholarly journals MEMÓRIA, HISTÓRIA E RELAÇÕES DE PODER * MEMORY, HISTORY AND POWER RELATIONS

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 327
Author(s):  
Sonale Diane Pastro de Oliveira ◽  
Maria Gabriela Silva Martins da Cunha Marinho

<p><strong>Resumo:</strong> Superado o regime militar, o Brasil tornou-se signatário de acordos internacionais de defesa e promoção dos direitos humanos. Apesar disso, até recentemente, o país negligenciou princípios e fundamentos da justiça de transição previstos pelo Sistema Interamericano de Direitos Humanos, entre eles, o direito à verdade, fato que o coloca à margem daquele Sistema. O artigo pontua aspectos políticos da transição-redemocratização política que podem explicar o adiamento da instalação da Comissão Nacional da Verdade no país, criada somente em 2011, e acentua também o caráter contraditório do processo. Especificamente, a análise assinala o fato de que ao transitar da memória para a história, como pretensamente fazem as comissões da verdade, os indivíduos que se aventuram no registro histórico estarão manejando e interferindo na memória coletiva, na percepção e na identidade da qual fazem parte, o que transforma memória em poder.   <br /><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Palavras-chaves:</strong> Comissão da Verdade; Memória; Relações de Poder; Direitos Humanos; Democracia.  </p><p><strong>Abstract:</strong> Overcoming the military regime, Brazil has become signatory of the international defense agreements and promotion of human rights. Yet, until recently, the country has neglected to foundations of transitional justice provided for the Inter-American System of Human Rights, between them, the right of truth, fact that stands aside that system. The article points out political aspects of transitional policy re-democratization which may explain the setting up progress of the National Truth Committee in the country, created only in 2011, and also emphasizes the contradictory procedure. Specifically, the analysis indicates the fact that going through memory to history, the way supposedly the Truth Committees do, the individuals who venture into a historical record will be managing and interfering in the collective memory, perception and identity from which they take part and change memory into power.  <br /><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> The Truth Committee, Memory and Power Relations, Human Rights, Democracy.<strong> </strong></p>

2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (01) ◽  
pp. 99-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Huneeus

Since the detention of General Pinochet in London in 1998 on charges of crimes against humanity, Chile's judges have sentenced more former officials of the military regime for human rights violations than judges of any other country in Latin America. This article argues that the prosecutorial turn reflects the judiciary's attempt to atone for its complicity with the dictatorship. The London arrest created pressure for prosecution of Pinochet‐era human rights violations; but it is the contest over the judiciary's legacy, as an important piece of postauthoritarian memory struggles, that explains why Chile's notoriously illiberal judiciary ceded to that pressure. By reconceptualizing judicial culture as contested, heterogeneous, and dynamic, this article opens the door to richer understandings of judicial politics, transitional justice, and the reception of international human rights.


Author(s):  
Marcio Camargo Cunha Filho

Resumo: Os direitos à informação e à verdade foram introduzidos conjuntamente na ordem jurídica brasileira, como duas faces da mesma moeda. Ambos foram pensados como instrumentos tardios da justiça de transição, ou seja, como elementos de uma reforma institucional que visava à busca da verdade como forma de reparação às graves violações de direitos fundamentais ocorridas durante o período ditatorial.  No entanto, a atuação dos principais órgãos responsáveis pela efetivação da Lei de Acesso à Informação no Poder Executivo Federal – a Controladoria-Geral da União (CGU) e a Comissão Mista de Reavaliação de Informações (CMRI) – têm tornado inócua esta importante função da Lei, indo de encontro a teses jurídicas consolidadas na Corte Interamericana de Direitos Humanos (CIDH) e na Organização de Estados Americanos (OEA). Palavras-chave: Direito à Informação; Direito à Verdade; Justiça de Transição; Controladoria-Geral da UniãoAbstract: The right to information and the right to truth were conceived in the Brazilian judicial system at the same time, as two sides of the same coin. Both were idealized as late instruments of the Transitional Justice, or, in other words, as part of an institutional reform that aimed at searching historical truth as a mechanism of reparation for violations of human rights occurred during the military dictatorship. Nevertheless, the performance of the main public entities responsible for enforcing the Brazilian Freedom of Information Act – the Office of the Comptroller General and the Commission on Reevaluation of Information – have emptied this important role of the Act, in antagonism with the orientations provided by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Organization of American States.Keywords: Right to Information; Right to Truth; Transitional Justice; Office of the Comptroller General


1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicente Navarro

This paper presents an analysis and critique of the U.S. government's current emphasis on human rights; and (a) its limited focus on only some civil and political components of the original U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, and (b) its disregard for economic and social rights such as the rights to work, fair wages, health, education, and social security. The paper discusses the reasons for that limited focus and argues that, contrary to what is widely presented in the media and academe: (1) civil and political rights are highly restricted in the U.S.; (2) those rights are further restricted in the U.S. when analyzed in their social and economic dimensions; (3) civil and political rights are not independent of but rather intrinsically related to and dependent on the existence of socioeconomic rights; (4) the definition of the nature and extension of human rights in their civil, political, social, and economic dimensions is not universal, but rather depends on the pattern of economic and political power relations particular to each society; and (5) the pattern of power relations in the U.S. society and the western system of power, based on the right to individual property and its concomitant class structure and relations, is incompatible with the full realization of human rights in their economic, social, political, and civil dimensions. This paper further indicates that U.S. financial and corporate capital, through its overwhelming influence over the organs of political power in the U.S. and over international bodies and agencies, is primarily responsible for the denial of the human rights of the U.S. population and many populations throughout the world as well.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luane Flores Chuquel

This current work studies the human rights violations suffered by indigenous peoples during the period of the Brazilian CivilMilitary Dictatorship. Likewise, it makes some notes about the beginning of the violations in a moment before this dark period. On this path, even before the Military Coup was launched in the year 1964 (one thousand nine hundred and sixty-four), the Indians were already experiencing constant usurpations of their rights at the expense of irresponsibilities commanded most of the time, by those who should watch over their rights lives. As will be seen, the violation and disrespect for Human Rights in the face of these peoples ended up becoming common and gaining strength mainly in the beginning of the implementation of the military regime. Negligent attempts at acculturation and "emancipation", in addition to inconsequential contacts with isolated peoples, culminated in the destruction and predatory logging of their lands. Missing processes of terribly violating demarcations of indigenous areas promoted the expulsion of countless peoples, causing the Indians to fall into a life totally surrounded by hunger, begging, alcoholism and prostitution. All in the name of the so-called “economic advance”, which aimed at building roads, in what was called “occupation of the Amazon”? As frequently stated by the authorities at the time, the Amazon rainforest was seen and understood as a “population void” by the Military Government. According to this thought idealized by the disgusting dictators and supporters, it will be observed that the cases of violations of Human Rights have been systematically “legalized”. The life, land and culture of indigenous peoples were left in the background. Depending on this brief narrative developed through documentary research, based on a hypothetical-deductive method, the intention is to rescue the martyrdoms of that time, demonstrating what actually happened to indigenous peoples during the Military Regime, in the simplest attempt to remember or even disclose to those who are unaware of this part of history. All that said, don't you forget. So that it never happens again.


Author(s):  
Aoláin Fionnuala Ní

Principle 29 deals with restrictions on the jurisdiction of military courts. Under this Principle, the adjudication of human rights violations by military courts is explicitly excluded, and ordinary domestic courts are mandated as the only appropriate venue of judicial oversight. Nevertheless, military courts remain functionally important for the routine and uncontroversial deployment of military law consistent with international law. The chapter first provides a contextual and historical background on Principle 29 before discussing its theoretical framework and how military courts are used in various countries such as Ireland and Turkey. Issues arising when civilians find themselves within the jurisdiction of military courts are also examined, along with the difficulties of ensuring fair trials in military courts. This chapter shows that military courts, while certainly serving important functions within the military forces of states, remain subject to human rights and humanitarian law compliance.


TheHandbookconsists of 32 Chapters in seven parts. Part I provides the historical background and sets out some of the contemporary challenges. Part II considers the relevant sources of international law. Part III describes the different legal regimes: land warfare, air warfare, maritime warfare, the law of occupation, the law applicable to peace operations, and the law of neutrality. Part IV introduces key concepts in international humanitarian law: weapons and the notion of superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering, the principle of distinction, proportionality, genocide and crimes against humanity, grave breaches and war crimes, internal armed conflict. Part V looks at key rights: the right to life, the prohibition on torture, the right to fair trial, economic, social and cultural rights, the protection of the environment, the protection of cultural property, and the human rights of the members of the armed forces. Part VI covers key issues such as: the use of force, terrorism, unlawful combatants, the application of human rights in times of armed conflict, forced migration, and issues of gender. Part VII deals with accountability issues including those related to private security companies, the need to focus on armed groups, as well as questions of state responsibility brought before national courts, and finally, the book addresses issues related to transitional justice.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 831-853
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Hoffberger

If thinking about weapons, one generally thinks about lethal technology. However, an abundance of so-called non-lethal weapons, a technology not aimed at killing but merely incapacitating the human target or military objective, is also being deployed both within and outside the ambit of armed conflict. Since non-lethal weapons do not necessarily implicate a zero chance of mortality, but often lead to severe wounds and tremendous suffering, the use and deployment of such weapons raise strong humanitarian and human rights concerns. The prohibition to cause superfluous injuries and unnecessary suffering, as well as the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks are, amongst others, one of the most relevant provisions potentially having an influence on the deployment of nonlethal technology in armed conflict. However, the invocation of the principle of proportionality may lead to the justification of the use of non-lethal weapons on the grounds that the military advantage anticipated was greater than the human suffering caused. Insofar, one must ask whether there is a “red-line”; where the almost inflationary invocation of the principle of proportionality may defeat the object and purpose of the Geneva Conventions and therefore render the deployment and use of non-lethal technology illegal. Apart from the battlefield, non-lethal weapons are also being deployed in lawenforcement scenarios, where human rights law plays a pivotal role. In this regard, one must not look merely at the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading suffering and the right to life but also at the right to health, a presumably underestimated principle curbing and shaping the use of non-lethal technology outside the ambit of armed conflict.


1975 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rupert Emerson

The new Asian and African states have laid much stress on human rights, but have often not lived up to them. The basic right of self-determination has been limited to colonies only. Democratic institutions have generally given way to authoritarian regimes, often run by the military, with popular participation denied rather than encouraged. The right to life, liberty, and security of person has been grossly violated in the cases of millions of refugees, temporary and permanent, in Africa and the Asian subcontinent. Many hundreds of thousands have been killed in domestic conflicts, as in Indonesia, Nigeria, and Burundi. One of the results is the emergence of a double standard: an all-out African and Asian attack upon the denial of human rights involved in colonialism and racial discrimination, but a refusal to face up to massive violations of human rights in the Third World itself.


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