Memorialization as Symbolic Reparation in the Inter-American Human Rights System

FAIN: FT-278930-21

Robin Adele Greeley
University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT 06269-9000)

Writing the final two chapters of a book on public art intended to function as symbolic reparation within the context of Human Rights Law in the Americas.

In international human rights law, symbolic reparation has emerged as a compelling mode of embodying both the duty to repair victims of human rights violations and aspirations toward a more moral and just society. For the Inter-American Human Rights System, symbolic reparation has become a key juridical tool in promoting human rights. Yet the translation of those values into effective results remains a challenge. This book project unites the discourses of art history and international human rights law to address the role of memorialization in symbolic reparation in the context of the IAHRS. It examines five emblematic IAHRS decisions involving memorials, each encapsulating vital concerns regarding the protection and promotion of human rights, to analyze their successes and failures. It mounts an argument for the reparative and transformative potential of memorialization, centered on victim agency, process, aesthetics, and activating the connection between repair and transformation.