The People's Paving Stones: The Material Politics of International Human Rights in the Baldosas por la Memoria of Buenos Aires

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrell Carver ◽  
Dolores Amat ◽  
Paulo Ravecca
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Moral Ambiguity ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
Material Politics ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Ethical Complexity

Abstract Baldosas por la memoria are memorial paving stones handcrafted by loosely networked activists. Produced continuously from 2006 to an informally established protocol, they memorialize “the disappeared” and others murdered by the state terrorism of the Argentinian dictatorship (1976–1983). As a synecdoche of the “down and dirty” everyday pavements, they function as a metonym for democratic struggle and popular sovereignty. Aesthetically, they work against the “forgetting” and kitschification to which conventional memorials become subject. Through remediation into books and a DVD documentary, they participate in controversies within the international politics of human rights. Using a “material turn” within visual analysis, yet distinct from the “new materialism,” this article explains how they function within familiar genres of memorialization but in wholly novel ways. Baldosas create ethical complexity and moral ambiguity by troubling collective memory. Thus, we examine their relation to guilt, complicity, trauma, and affect.

Argentina’s Trials

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
New Information ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
New Knowledge

The last Argentine dictatorship (1976–1983) left a legacy of an estimated 30,000 desaparecidos (disappeared people). Three decades later, the wall of impunity is now being torn down. Trials are spreading across Argentina and hundreds of repressors are being judged. These trials are public spaces for collective memory making, political arenas for competing memory battles, and forums in which new information and perspectives about what happened under state terrorism continually emerge. Through the testimonies of survivors and the claims of the defense teams we gain new knowledge about the level and scope of the human rights abuses, how the repressive apparatus worked, the everyday “normality” of state terrorism, and society’s complicity. La última dictadura argentina (1976–1983) dejó un legado de cerca de 30,000 desaparecidos. Tres décadas más tarde, el muro de la impunidad está siendo derribado. Los juicios se multiplican por todo el país y cientos de represores están siendo enjuiciados. Estos juicios son espacios públicos para la construcción de la memoria colectiva, escenarios politicos para las batallas sobre la memoria y foros en los que continuamente surgen nuevas perspectivas e información sobre lo ocurrido bajo el terrorismo de estado. A través del testimonio de los sobrevivientes y los reclamos de los equipos de defensa legal surge un nuevo conocimiento acerca del nivel y el alcance de los abusos de los derechos humanos y sobre cómo funcionaba el aparato represivo, la “normalidad” cotidiana del terrrorismo de estado y la complicidad de la sociedad.

Collective Memory and the Language of Human Rights

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 73-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
Human Rights Organizations ◽  
Political Events ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
Political Spectrum

The democratization that followed the last military dictatorship in Argentina (1976–1983) has been influenced by human rights organizations’ relentless work to bring about truth and justice regarding the consequences of state terrorism and to keep the memory of that period alive. These efforts frame the discursive context in which human rights violations, including torture, are interpreted in contemporary Argentina. Argentine interviewees from across the political spectrum condemn torture, but the language and frames they use and the narratives surrounding political events vary. These accounts expose the conflicted terrain of memory making and the ambivalences and contradictions that permeate the construction of a torture-rejecting culture. La democratización que vino después de la última dictadura militar en la Argentina (1976–1983) ha sido influenciada por el trabajo incesante de las organizaciones de derechos humanos para lograr que se establezca la verdad y se haga justicia sobre las consecuencias del terrorismo de estado y para mantener la memoria sobre ese periodo viva. Estos esfuerzos enmarcan el contexto discursivo a través del cual las violaciones de los derechos humanos, entre ellas la tortura, son interpretadas en la Argentina contemporánea. Las personas entrevistadas en Argentina, quienes atraviesan el espectro político, condenan la tortura. Sin embargo, el lenguaje y los esquemas que usan y las narrativas sobre los acontecimientos políticos varían. Estos relatos exponen el terreno conflictivo de la construcción de la memoria y las ambivalencias y contradicciones que permean la construcción de una cultura de rechazo hacia la tortura.

Justice, Acknowledgment, and Collective Memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Valls
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Place Names ◽  
The Past ◽  
Regime Transitions

In regime transitions, a number of mechanisms are utilized to memorialize the past and to reject the ideas associated with human rights abused of the prior regime. This is often done through truth commissions, apologies, memorials, museums, changes in place names, national holidays, and other symbolic measures. In the United States, some efforts along these lines have been undertaken, but on the whole they have been very limited and inadequate. In addition, many symbols and memorials associated with the past, such as Confederate monuments and the Confederate Battle Flag, continue to be displayed. Hence while some progress has been made on these issues, much more needs to be done.

Popular Resource Sovereignty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leif Wenar
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
The People ◽  
Rich Countries

Article 1 of both of the major human rights covenants declares that the people of each country “shall freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources.” This chapter considers what conditions would have to hold for the people of a country to exercise this right—and why public accountability over natural resources is the only realistic solution to the “resource curse,” which makes resource-rich countries more prone to authoritarianism, civil conflict, and large-scale corruption. It also discusses why cosmopolitans, who have often been highly critical of prerogatives of state sovereignty, have good reason to endorse popular sovereignty over natural resources. Those who hope for more cosmopolitan institutions should see strengthening popular resource sovereignty as the most responsible path to achieving their own goals.

The Head, the Hand, and Matter: New Materialism and the Politics of Knowledge

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 49-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Rekret
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Karen Barad ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Do So

This article seeks to examine the political connotations of a recent ‘material turn’ in social and political theory and its implications for theorizations of political agency. ‘New materialist’ theories are premised upon transcending the limits which social constructivism places upon thought, viewed as a reification of the division of subject and object and so a hubristic anthropocentrism which places human beings at the centre of social existence. Yet new materialist theories have tended to locate the conditions of the separation of mind and world they seek to overcome upon the terrain of epistemic or ethical error. By taking the work of Quentin Meillassoux, Jane Bennett and Karen Barad as exemplary, this article contends that new materialist theories not only fall short of their own materialist pretensions insofar as they do not interrogate the material conditions of the separation of the mental and material, but that the failure to do so has profound repercussions for the success of their accounts of political agency. This essay seeks to offer a counter-narrative to new materialist theories by situating the hierarchy between thought and world as a structural feature of capitalist social relations.

State Terrorism, Clandestine Language: Notes on the Argentine Military Dictatorship

PMLA ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 124 (5) ◽  
pp. 1794-1799
Author(s):  
Mirta Alejandra Antonelli
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Traumatic Memory ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Human Rights Organizations ◽  
Successive State ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
Governmental Intervention ◽  
Historical Truth

Today the argentine judiciary dispenses ritual punishment as it condemns the oppressors of the last military dictatorship (1976–83) in the name of historical truth. Human rights organizations and movements have contributed immeasurably to this end. More than two decades have passed since the historic military-juntas trial (1985), and over the years successive state policies have proved that traumatic memory is a contested site, subject in this postdictatorial democracy to both debate and governmental intervention.

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
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Military Regime ◽  
American System ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Military ◽  
Change Memory

<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>

scholarly journals Deconstructing Indian Media Strategy to Demonize Kashmir Movement

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-57
Author(s):  
Sheikh Gh. Waleed Rasool ◽  
◽  
Saadia Pasha
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Media Ethics ◽  
Real Situation ◽  
Jammu And Kashmir ◽  
Human Rights Organizations ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
Media Hype ◽  
Resistance Movement

The study critically examines Indian approach to use media as a key tool to demonize mass resistance movement in Jammu and Kashmir. Referring to different phases of the movement in Kashmir – 1947, 1965, 1971, 1987, 2000 and 2010 – it argues that India has employed media as a tool to portray Kashmir movement as an instigated one and those who run and support it are mere miscreants and violence mongers. While dubbing the uprising in Kashmir as terrorism, Indian media went overboard to justify massive killings and violations of human rights by the armed forces under the guise of different laws and, to a great extent, succeeded in hoodwinking the attention of international community and human rights organizations from the real situation on the ground. The findings of this study captured six frames of self-determination movement in electical dialecticism theoretical prism. The study sets the course of the line for investigators to study media effects. Keywords: Media in occupation, Peace and state terrorism, Elite media, Media ethics, Dispute, Resolution, Media hype, Democracy, Plebiscite.

Emerging Adult Essay

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Elizalde
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Young Woman ◽  
Emerging Adult ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
The Public ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
Culture Of Fear

I am María Victoria, a young woman at the age of 31, and I am writing about my twenties living in Paraná, the place where I was born and brought up.In order to understand properly my narration, there are some historical features that would be important to underline about my country pursuant to my experience. Since my childhood I have usually heard from my aunts, parents, and grandparents an open distrust of politicians and memories of a period of instability, censorship, and state terrorism where many civilians “disappeared” and people in general were being observed everywhere. Everyone could be seen as a spy, and varied and countless violations of human rights happened. In the return of democracy, there was a visible refreshment of social well-being, but it was difficult to leave a culture of fear and adopt self-expression freely as a way of living or to participate in politics. Self-expression was related to “show” instead of freedom or critical thinking. That is the context I grew up in. Devaluation, public sector corruption, unemployment or low-paying jobs, and working in the black economy are frequently heard concepts in this society. In each of the subsequent governments, many cases of corruption in the public sector were demonstrated. So I understand it is very difficult here to keep values such as honesty, equity, fraternity, and liberty and succeed in politics. And I have found a better place to do my best in my work, personal relationships, educational instances, and social or communitarian projects....

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