thematic resources

Theories & Methods
Ethics
Transitional Justice
Trauma & Mental Health
History & Narratives

 

Theories & Methods
Re-Imagining Peace after Massacres: Theoretical & Methodological Principles,
Roberta Culbertson and Béatrice Pouligny
Abstract.This piece summarizes the theoretical principles that informed the project and as they emerged in the course of the international seminar organized on November 2004 in Charlottesville, Virginia.  This theoretical summary is based on observations made during the seminar and recorded in seminar notes, the written reports of country teams, papers by the project’s leaders and advisors, and current work in the field.  It is not meant to reflect all the nuances and interests of individual projects and team members, but rather to reflect an overall perspective within which individual projects can go forward, assured of some comparative opportunities in the future.
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Attachment: The Bases of Community: Keys to Community Success and Community Rebuilding, Roberta Culbertson (Tool box)

Methodological and Ethical Problems: A Trans-disciplinary Approach, Béatrice Pouligny, Bernard Doray and Jean-Clément Martin
Abstract. This paper examines the ethical and methodological issues raised by social science research conducted in situations where mass crimes have been committed. Our analysis is based on our respective experiences as researchers and practitioners in different historical and contemporary settings. Our common ethics imply that we share the same respect for human beings, alive and dead, who are the direct subjects of our work. This common ground has allowed us to collaborate across different disciplines (political science, psychiatry, and history). We began our exchange during brainstorming meetings organized at CERI in 2001-2002, attempting to encourage the cross-fertilization of our questioning in an effort to delve more deeply into the complexity of post-mass crime scenarios.  In our view, this process has confirmed the fact that ethics and research methods are inseparable. This paper offers some avenues of thought in this direction by first examining the question of situating oneself in relation to “evil.” The second section of our contribution explains the method we use to develop a comprehensive approach to violent situations. The third and final section explores the responsibility of any outsider (particularly a researcher) in the process of writing history and constructing a narrative of massacres.
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Building Peace in Situations of Post-Mass Crimes, Béatrice Pouligny
Abstract.  This essay explores the meaning of ‘peacebuilding’ in situations in which mass crimes have been committed. It underlines the specific difficulties that these situations pose to both analysts and practitioners. It also makes a number of methodological proposals regarding the study of the impact that mass crimes have on rebuilding of social and political relations in war-torn societies. Further to this, the essay emphasizes the importance of a better understanding of these processes, as they emerge in particular socio-political situations, in order to highlight the most effective programmes of assistance in contexts of post-mass crime. In order to attempt to address this sensitive issue, analysts and practitioners alike must face two challenges. First, they should try to understand, in one way or another, how the carrying out of mass crime may have come about. Second, capacities for peace already existing within the society concerned should be identified. Indeed, for the rules of the social and political game to function or, in other words, for all actors to become interested in joining in the collective ‘game’, such resources cannot be ignored. Peacebuilding must include local methods that, in almost all cases, have already been constructed over time, while at the same time borrowing in various ways from the outside.
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Click here to access a Spanish version of the text: “Cómo construer la paz donde han ocurrido crímenes masivos”

Save the Children, So you want to Involve Children in Research, Sweden, 2004
A toolkit supporting children’s meaningful and ethical participation in research relating to violence against children.
To download the book in pdf:
http://shop.rb.se/product/product.aspx?ItemId=2965386

Bibliography

Ethics
An Ethic of Responsibility in Practice. The conduct of investigations in situations of extreme violence, Béatrice Pouligny
Abstract. This contribution sets out to consider certain ethical and methodological issues raised by the conduct of investigations in situations of extreme violence. It proposes to explore the relationship with the specific “object” in terms of researchers’ responsibility towards the people about whom their research is conducted. That approach is based primarily on the development of a “comprehensive” sociology from the perspective of meaning, with the aim of entering the subjectivity of the other person. Within the context of extreme violence, such an approach poses increased difficulties, which this article endeavours to explore. That involves the researcher in constant, complex critical analysis of situations that disrupt all his or her bearings. Making the other person not simply an “object” but a “subject” of research also means going beyond categories that might constrain the researcher and entails continuous linkage of individual and collective histories. This naturally raises questions concerning not only the investigative but also the analytical techniques employed by the researcher from clinical practice and research work, are offered in support of their suggestions.
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- Click here to access a Spanish version of the text
Una ética de la responsabilidad en la práctica. Realizar encuestas en situaciones de extrema violencia.

Methodological and Ethical Problems: A Trans-disciplinary Approach, Béatrice Pouligny, Bernard Doray and Jean-Clément Martin
Abstract. This paper examines the ethical and methodological issues raised by social science research conducted in situations where mass crimes have been committed. Our analysis is based on our respective experiences as researchers and practitioners in different historical and contemporary settings. Our common ethics imply that we share the same respect for human beings, alive and dead, who are the direct subjects of our work. This common ground has allowed us to collaborate across different disciplines (political science, psychiatry, and history). We began our exchange during brainstorming meetings organized at CERI in 2001-2002, attempting to encourage the cross-fertilization of our questioning in an effort to delve more deeply into the complexity of post-mass crime scenarios.  In our view, this process has confirmed the fact that ethics and research methods are inseparable. This paper offers some avenues of thought in this direction by first examining the question of situating oneself in relation to “evil.” The second section of our contribution explains the method we use to develop a comprehensive approach to violent situations. The third and final section explores the responsibility of any outsider (particularly a researcher) in the process of writing history and constructing a narrative of massacres.
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Intervenants civils et souffrance psychique, Philippe Lemarchand et Christian Robineau
Abstract.  Les auteurs s’intéressent à un sujet encore peu exploré à ce jour : la souffrance psychique à laquelle sont confrontés aux civils qui inter­viennent en tierces parties dans les conflits armés.
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Ethics of Human Rights Research with Traumatized Populations, Victoria Baxter (forthcoming)

Bibliography

Transitional Justice

Examining the Implications of Global Justice, Barbara Oomen
Abstract. The globalization of justice is reshaping many conventional ideas regarding the characteristics, legitimacy and perceptions of justice initiatives. By providing an informative description of the new elements present in the context of global justice, this paper aims to build from that base to offer a greater perspective on the implications of this transformation. Traditional theory is incorporated, but emphasis is placed on the consideration of individuals’ and communities’ perceptions of the legitimacy of various types of justice initiatives set up to deal with the perpetrators involved in conflicts in their respective areas. Particular attention is paid to the various factors affecting peoples’ perceptions of these justice initiatives, as well as the numerous corresponding dangers they provoke for the communities.
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The Forgotten Dimensions of ‘Transitional Justice’ Mechanisms: Cultural Meanings and Imperatives for Survivors of Violent Conflicts, Béatrice Pouligny
Abstract. Behind ‘transitional justice’ mechanisms lay a host of unremarked and unanalysed cultural meanings. This essay concentrates on the ones conveyed by the survivors of violence themselves as their interpretations of justice may differ greatly from the one implicitly promoted (albeit with variations and ambiguities) by the ‘international community’. The analysis shows how far theses subjective dimensions impact the way the different actions aimed at addressing past abuses and reforming post-conflict societies are perceived. The various mechanisms known as part of ‘transitional justice’ also proceed from a certain interpretation of reality, and therefore belongs to the vast domain of the practice of producing narratives and creating meaning. In this process, we often tend to forget that several registers of truth coexist but do not necessarily coincide. This is a second dimension in which the highly subjective dimensions of any judicial process remain the most neglected today. This has not only to do with individual and collective memories but also with individual traumas and their collective implications, an aspect very badly considered so far in post-conflict rebuilding strategies. This essay suggests some avenues for research and assistance to better integrate these dimensions, and to better address the imperatives faced by survivors trying to reconcile their past.
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Donor-Driven Justice and its Discontents: The Case of Rwanda, Barbara Oomen
Abstract. Never before was a process of doing justice driven so strongly from the outside as in post-genocide Rwanda. Not only did the 1994 genocide lead to the founding of the International Tribunal, but it also induced intensive donor involvement in domestic attempts to ‘break the cycle of hatred’ — from the work done by the national courts and the Unity Commission to the gacaca. In this sense, Rwanda became the forerunner of a much wider trend, towards a judicialization of international relations, for instance through an emphasis on international criminal law. However, the past decade of donor involvement in Rwanda in general, and the case of the gacaca in particular, show us how this specific — technocratic, de-contextualized — emphasis on justice might seem innocuous at first glance, but carries dangers within it, particularly if it takes place in an increasingly autocratic and oppressive political environment like that of contemporary Rwanda.
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Rwanda’s Gacaca: Objectives, Merits and Their Relation to Supranational Criminal Law, Barbara Oomen
Abstract. This article aims to discuss the way in which the gacaca have managed, and will manage, to deal with the legacy of the Rwandan genocide, and how their work – in terms of aims, substance and procedures – relates to supranational criminal law and its core objectives. In order to come to such an assessment this contribution first briefly discuss the specific circumstances of the Rwandan genocide, the various legal institutions put in place to deal with its legacy and the choice for the gacaca. Next, it concentrates on the sanctions provided for by the gacaca courtsin the light of their aims, to finally draw attention to the drawbacks of the gacaca system, both from a legal point of view as in its practical implementation. It is argued that the gacaca can only be understood and evaluated against the backdrop of the Rwandan political context. And while it is too early to come to a conclusive assessment of the merits of the gacaca system, the article conclude with some tentative thoughts on the advantages and the disadvantages of these courts as compared to other instruments of supranational criminal law.
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Degree Programs, Resources and Courses Syllabi that Address Transitional Justice and Related Themes, compiled and edited by Béatrice Pouligny, based on documents prepared by the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and David Backer (Stanford University)
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Useful links and online database on transitional justice issues

Bibliography

Trauma & Mental Health

Bringing Order Out of Chaos: A Culturally Competent Approach to Managing the Problems of Refugees and Victims of Organized Violence, Maurice Eisenbruch, Joop T. V. M. de Jong and Willem van de Put
Abstract. The collaborative program of the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) provides a community-oriented and culturally sensitive public health response to the psychosocial problems of refugees and victims of organized violence. This paper describes the 9-step model that TPO has developed as a blueprint for each new intervention. Beneficiaries participate in determining priorities and there is an orientation toward culturally competent training, capacity-building, and sustainability. Two cases, one related to Sudanese refugees in Uganda and the other to internally displaced persons and returnees in post-war Cambodia, show how the TPO intervention protocol is adapted to local settings. The paper provides preliminary evaluative comments on the model’s performance.
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What does ‘community rehabilitation’ mean? Anthropological suggestions on violence, trauma, adolescents, and ideology of memory, Roberto Beneduce
Abstract. These notes are an attempt to synthesize experience and reflections, which have accrued over different times and places, in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Bosnia, Albania, and Mozambique, between 1994 and 2001. The text includes a critic of the notions of PTSD.
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Techniques pour l’élaboration des deuils collectifs, Jean-Claude Métraux
Abstract. Ce texte propose des procédures facilitant l’élaboration des deuils collectifs. Il s’appuie sur les conclusions de la recherche « Paix et création sociale », menée de 2001 à 2003, qui portait sur la dynamique paradoxale entre deuils individuels et collectifs ». La recherche « Paix et création sociale » a également permis de penser des procédures groupales permettant de faciliter l’élaboration des deuils collectifs de sens. Elles se basent toutes sur le fait que les individus tendent à élaborer plus rapidement leurs deuils de sens que les communautés. A des fins d’illustration, l’auteur choisit un deuil collectif spécifique, le deuil collectif des disparus ou deuil collectif des traces. Cependant, une méthodologie similaire peut être imaginée pour tout type de deuil collectif. A la condition d’un effort de traduction, à chaque point, d’une réalité à l’autre
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Psychotherapist for Refugees or Refugee from Psychotherapy?, Jean-Claude Métraux
Abstract.  The author has practiced psychotherapy with numerous refugees and asylum seekers in Switzerland over the past ten years. Between 2001 and 2002 he spent one year away from this practice in order to study collective grief in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Métraux, 2004). His contribution is divided into two distinct sections. In the first he offers a theoretical overview of the topic of grief in its individual and collective dimensions. He emphasizes the central role that grief, both that of the patient and that of the psychotherapist, invariably plays in psychotherapy with refugees. In the second part he shows, via an anthropological and social interpretation of the psychotherapy of one of his refugee patients, that the grief process experienced by the therapist leads to a radical revision of some of the seemingly immutable principles of psychotherapy. Depending on what type of reception this infringement on revered principles receives, and on our profession’s tolerance of inconsistency, the refugee’s psychotherapist may become a refugee from psychotherapy!
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Intervenants civils et souffrance psychique, Philippe Lemarchand et Christian Robineau
Abstract.  Les auteurs s’intéressent à un sujet encore peu exploré à ce jour : la souffrance psychique à laquelle sont confrontés aux civils qui inter­viennent en tierces parties dans les conflits armés.
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Useful links and online database trauma & mental health

Bibliography

History & Narratives

The Rethorics of Evil, Jennifer L. Geddes (forthcoming, Spring 2006)

History Education and Sociopolitical Reconciliation After Mass Crimes, Elizabeth A. Cole
Abstract. In most societies recovering from mass crimes, questions of how to deal with the past are acute, especially when the past involves memories of death, suffering and destruction so wide-spread that a high percentage of the population is affected. The complex process by which deeply divided societies recover the ability to function normally and effectively after violence is known as reconciliation; new and more refined understandings of this concept have deepened the simplistic definitions and assumptions with which it was once (and is often still) burdened. In this paper the author attempts to give an overview of our current understandings of socio-political reconciliation, with the benefit of about a decade of sustained attention from both academics and practitioners from many disciplines, and suggest where history education seems to fit into the sequencing and major components of reconciliation understood as a long-term, multi-layered and multi-generational process. She then discusses some problems with the linkage of reconciliation and history education, and finally speculate about some specific ways in which history education can contribute to reconciliation, drawing mainly on the findings of a three-year, eleven-case-study research project she has directed at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.
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Mémoires et violences : Vivre aujourd’hui, imaginer demain, Béatrice Pouligny
Abstract. Si “politique de la mémoire” il doit y avoir, en aucun cas il s’agit d’imposer une mémoire unique mais de permettre la négociation permanente entre différents processus, dans un équilibre précaire entre les “faits” et la manière dont les personnes et les groupes intéressés ont compris et tenté d’expliquer ce qui se passait subjectivement et empiriquement. Ceci suppose notamment qu’un espace soit donné à des voix contradictoires. Comme le suggère l’origine grec du mot (sumballein – le pont), la symbolisation doit permettre que chaque personne, chaque groupe au sein de la société puisse se rapprocher de ce que fut l’expérience des autres et qu’ainsi se construisent progressivement des références partagées sur l’histoire. Deux dynamiques paraissent particulièrement importantes dans ce processus : les relations entre différents régimes de vérité (ou différentes représentations de ce qui s’est passé) ; la dynamique intériorité / extériorité, empathie / distance qui doit se construire à travers le travail de mémoire. L’objectif de cette contribution est d’avancer quelques propositions sur ces deux points.
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Memoria y Olvido, Nicolás Buenaventura Vidal
Abstract. La presente reflexión parte de su experiencia y trabajo como cuentero. Es un intento de observar la memoria y el olvido en mi práctica y formular, al respecto, algunas hipótesis y preguntas. Entre otras, esa: Si la enfermedad del olvido es la amnesia ¿cuál sería la enfermedad de la memoria... La memoria es camino, es el necesario trayecto para el olvido, no es un fin...
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Useful links on history

Reconciliation: History and the Politics of Reconciliation Program
The Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs support a study area promoting research and dialogue on how societies reckon with difficult pasts and the process involved in reconciliation at a societal or political level.
Work focuses on four main areas:

1. Role of historical commissions in reconciliation
2. History education
3. Survey of the field
4. Networking / Resources

http://www.cceia.org/page.php/prmID/68

International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience
The Coalition is a network of historic site museums in many different parts of the world, at many stages of development, presenting and interpreting a wide variety of historic issues, events and people. They hold in common the belief that it is the obligation of historic sites to assist the public in drawing connections between the history of these sites and their contemporary implications. They view stimulating dialogue on pressing social issues and promoting humanitarian and democratic values as a primary function.

http://www.sitesofconscience.org

Association Internationale de Recherches sur les Crimes contre l'Humanité et les Génocides :

http://clevybosio.free.fr/aircrige/index.html

Bibliography