Dealing with the Past CAMECO

This special collection focuses on the role of the media and communication in Dealing with Violent Pasts. It is based on the collaboration between the Media Consultancy CAMECO in Aachen (Germany) and the Agiamondo Civil Peace programme on Dealing with the Past in the African Great Lakes region. Within a network of ten civil society organisations, including seven Catholic Justice and Peace Commissions in Burundi, Rwanda and DR Congo, CAMECO contributes its expertise in media and communication for Peace. This collection is organised by Justine Cibembe and Christoph Dietz.

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Dealing with the Past and Transitional Justice: Creating Conditions for Peace, Human Rights and the Rule of Law

Mô Bleeker (ed.)

Bern: Federal Departement of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) (2006), 193 pp.

"[...] 1. It is fair to say that we have come a long way in recent years in developing the concepts of dealing with the past and transitional justice. We now have a good understanding of what is needed for effective transitional justice, as well as the linkages and the dynamics between judicial and ... non-judicial elements. I believe we have created a fairly well-integrated approach to transitional justice, at least in theory. At the same time we are still far from mainstreaming these concepts into the different frameworks of conflict resolution, peacebuilding, long-term development or human rights promotion. So in reality there is a gap between theory and practice, which may be even widening, and between the holistic approach in our mindsets, the implementation and strategies actually applied in the field. 2. As the head of the division at our Ministry, which runs conflict transformation programs at the same time as it deals with human rights policy, I was particularly interested in the dilemmas and conflicts of interest that we are facing in transitional justice. David Bloomfield summarized yesterday’s group discussion by saying that there is no contradiction between justice and peacebuilding, but there is a tension that is greater in the short term than in the long term. I must say I was also impressed by the International Criminal Court’s sensitivity to these issues. It may be at the end of the day when the real dilemmas are fewer than I had thought. This is basically what Juan Méndez has been saying. There are of course some real dilemmas, he argues, but there are also many false ones, and there are good approaches to reduce the real dilemmas, by offering amnesty to rebellion, by separating perpetrators from communities they claim to represent. 3. My third point is linked to the previous one: many of you have been alluding to the emerging norm or the growing recognition of a de iure prohibition of amnesties, including de facto amnesties covering gross violations of human rights, be they crimes against humanity, genocide or war crimes. This is a very interesting development. We should examine how we can reinforce this tendency, solidify these emerging norms and (this has also been said) communicate to current and potential perpetrators that this is an issue that is not up for negotiation. 4. My fourth point is on the participation of victims and how transitional justice can improve their situation. Are we really listening to the victims? Do we as external actors know enough about what type of process could satisfy them and support their needs? We have heard that truth, prosecution, reparation and institutional reforms are not sufficient if there is no political will at the level of government and if the latter does not share the healing human feelings of compassion and remorse and accompanying these feelings with concrete actions that dignify victims and make them believe in the non-repetition of violations. The lesson to be learned is that victims should be fully associated with the design and implementation of transitional justice strategies. 5. Let us recognize that transitional justice should be just that: transitional. Yesterday we were reminded that we should be careful about what we term “transitional” in order to avoid giving alibis to states that are not keen on human rights protection. So it is absolutely crucial to create national rule of law systems that work effectively, and nationally owned human rights institutions and policies. As it has been pointed out, the international community is still struggling with the need to effectively extend and support sustainable institution/capacity building." (Conclusions, pages 183-184) more

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Covering Violence: A Guide to Ethical Reporting About Victims and Trauma
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Roger Simpson, William Coté

New York: Columbia University Press, 2nd ed. (2006), xv, 295 pp.

"Now in its second edition, Covering Violence remains a crucial guide for becoming a sensitive and responsible reporter. Discussing such topics as rape and the ethics of interviewing children, the book gives students and journalists a detailed understanding of what is happening "on the scene" of a v ... more

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Best Practices in Trauma Reporting: Ideas and Insights from Award-Winning Newspaper Articles
Key Guides

Kevin Kawamoto

New York: Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma (2005), 26 pp.

"The goal of this best practices guide is not to provide a template for trauma reporting, although the specific examples should be useful for journalists working on similar stories or faced with similar ethical dilemmas related to trauma reporting. The goal is to help journalists produce professiona ... more

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Deutsche Kolonien: Traum und Trauma

Gisela Graichen, Horst Gründer

Holger Diedrich (Mitarb.)

Berlin: Ullstein, 4th ed. (2005), 479 pp.

"Es ist an der Zeit, die Geschichte des deutschen Kolonialismus mitsamt seinen Abenteurern, Schurken, Gewinnern und Verlierern neu zu erzählen. Die TV-Journalistin Gisela Graichen, nimmt sich zusammen mit dem führenden deutschen Historiker auf diesem Gebiet des lange vergessenen Themas an. So kurz ... more

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The Theatre of Violence: Narratives of Protagonists in the South African Conflict

Don Foster, Paul Haupt, Marésa De Beer

Capetwon; Oxford: Institute of Justice and Reconciliation; HSRC Press; James Currey (2005), xii, 364 pp.

"If the dominant media stereotype portrays perpetrators as monsters, as ‘Prime Evil’, then the dominant academic image is the opposite. It paints them as ordinary people (gender ignored, but assumed as male) diligently under sway of modern bureaucratic compartmentalisation (the banality of evil ... thesis), or as obedient to authority and conforming to social pressures (the situationist thesis). No monsters here, just ordinary people under rather extraordinary circumstances. The moral message: we co uld all potentially become perpetrators, depending on the situation. There is a competing view: the perpetrator as a willing, even eager, executioner driven by strong negative emotions against the ‘other’. The scholarly world presents us with antagonistic perspectives. What picture do we get from narrative approaches, from stories told by those actually responsible for politically-related violence? First, there are only a few narrative studies. Second, they also paint competing pictures. On the one hand, is a picture of the perpetrator as a victim – of organisational routines, hierarchies, pressures and secrecy, and of dominant ideologies, as well as brutal initiation rites which instil the practice of obedience to authority. These narrative studies support the situationist and ordinary person line of explanation. They also correct the erstwhile neglect of gender issues by placing emphasis on masculinity as an important ingredient. On the other hand, the South African storytelling studies by Marks (2001), Straker (1992) and Campbell (1992) throw up a different picture. While victims in one sense – of Bantu education, poverty and violence at the hands of both state security agents and older vigilante groups – they are also action-oriented moral crusaders in defence of their communities and in politically-minded offensive against the apartheid state and its allies. Once again, we have contrasting and competing pictures of those responsible for political violence. In these particular storytelling perspectives, differences are partly due to the different positions of protagonists across the dividing line of power: state security personnel on the one hand and resistance activists on the other. Apart from the conflicting images from varying epistemological perspectives and different theoretical angles, the very label or category of a ‘perpetrator’ is more muddied, contested and problematic than a first glance would suggest. We described seven grey areas which challenge or disrupt the dominant binaries of victim-perpetrator and the triangular view of dramatis personae: perpetrator – ‘victim’ – bystander/observer. Moreover, in Chapter 4, we raise a number of moral quandaries or dilemmas in the study of those responsible for violence, which again dislodge the simple and tidy categories. Therefore a central component of the present study aims to problematise and disrupt the complacency of the very label and category of ‘perpetrator’. What should be done? In the face of these competing images and explanations we carve out a ‘third space’ beyond, or perhaps better, between the theoretical antagonisms of situationism versus agency (willing killers); among the grey areas between category labels of victim/perpetrator/bystander. Rather than this being seen as an alternative position, it should be read as an attempt at synthesis. Instead of the oppositional pairing of ‘either-or’, it should be seen in terms of the inclusive pairing ‘both-and’ (Foster, 1999).We argue that those responsible for violence should be regarded as potentially both victim and perpetrator, as well as both subject to circumstances/influences and active initiators." (Conclusion, page 321-322) more

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Breaking the Silence: Memory Books and Succession Planning. The Experience of NACWOLA and Save the Children UK in Uganda

Sophie Witter

London: Save the Children; National Community of Women Living with HIVAIDS in Uganda (NACWOLA) (2004), 36 pp.

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Medien des kollektiven Gedächtnisses: Konstruktivität - Historizität - Kulturspezifität

Astrid Erll, Ansgar Nünning (eds.)

Berlin; New York: De Gruyter (2004), viii, 310 pp.

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Trauma and Cinema: Cross-Cultural Explorations

E. Ann Kaplan, Ban Wang (eds.)

Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press (2004), 288 pp.

"The book discusses how trauma presented in the media spills over national boundaries and can be found in images across divergent cultures in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and America." (Publisher description)

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Beyond the Trauma Vortex: The Media's Role in Healing Fear, Terror, & Violence

Gina Ross

Peter A. Levine (foreword)

Berkeley: North Atlantic Books (2003), xviii, 210 pp.

"In Beyond the Trauma Vortex, Gina Ross proposes a collaboration between the media, trauma researchers, and helping officials in order to break the vicious cycle of trauma and violence. The media, Ross suggests, can use their tremendous influence to promote peace rather than violence and to heal wou ... more

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Les Blessures psychiques: La force de revivre

Gustave-Nicolas Fischer

Paris: Odile Jacob (2003), 271 pp.

"« Cet ouvrage traite des victimes de traumatismes psychologiques : les survivants des atrocités de guerre, de la torture et des agressions, ainsi que ces hommes et ces femmes qui souffrent quotidiennement de harcèlement émotionnel. L’auteur étudie les cas de plusieurs victimes, parmi lesquel ... more

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Die (koloniale) Begegnung: AfrikanerInnen in Deutschland 1880 - 1945, Deutsche in Afrika 1880 - 1918

Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst (ed.)

Frankfurt am Main et al.: Peter Lang (2003), 332 pp.

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Voices of Collective Remembering

James V. Wertsch

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2002), v, 202 pp.

"There is currently a great deal of discussion in the humanities and social sciences about collective memory, but there is very little agreement on what it is. The first goal of this volume is to review various understandings of this term to bring some coherence to the discussion. Drawing on this re ... more

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Recreando el pasado: Guía metodológica para la memoria y la historia local

Mario Garcés Durán

Santiago de Chile: Educación y Comunicaciones (ECO) (2002), 33 pp.

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Gedächtnis und Erinnerung: Ein interdisziplinäres Lexikon

Nicolas Pethes, Jens Ruchatz (eds.)

Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag (2001), 700 pp.

"Um die Ansätze und Erkenntnisse der unterschiedlichen Forschungsrichtungen zusammenzuführen, präsentiert dieses interdisziplinäre Lexikon das weite Feld der Gedächtnicforschung in seiner historischen und theoretischen Vielfalt. Mit über 450 Artikeln deckt es die Disziplinen ab, in denen die P ... more

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Witness to Genocide: The Children of Rwanda: Drawings of Child Survivors of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994

Richard A. Salem (ed.)

New York: Friendship Press; NCC's Church World Service; Conflict Management Initiatives; W.K. Kellogg Foundation (2000), 48 pp.

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War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century

Emmanuel Sivan, Jay Winter (eds.)

Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press (1999), vii, 260 pp.

"No scholarly consensus exists about how the terms 'memory' and 'collective memory' may most fruitfully inform historical study. Hence there is still much room for reflection and clarification in this branch of cultural history. How war has been remembered collectively is the central question in thi ... more

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Giving Voice: Practical Guidelines for Implementing Oral Testimony Projects

London: Panos (1999), iii, 79 pp.

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Erinnerungsarbeit: Der Nationalsozialismus in der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur von 1945 bis heute. Katalog zur Ausstellung

Wilma Aden-Grossmann (ed.)

Kassel: Universität Gesamthochschule Kassel (1998), 116 pp.

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Video, War, and the Diasporic Imagination

Dona Kolar-Panov

London; New York: Routledge (1997), xvi, 252 pp.

"Video, War and the Diasporic Imagination is an incisive study of the loss and (re) construction of collective and personal identities in ethnic migrant communities. Focusing on the Croatian and Macedonian communities in Western Australia, Dona Kolar-Panov documents the social and cultural changes t ... more

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Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Lateinamerika

Detlef Nolte (ed.)

Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert (1996), 226 pp.

Covering Violence: A Guide to Ethical Reporting About Victims and Trauma Key Guides

Best Practices in Trauma Reporting: Ideas and Insights from Award-Winning Newspaper Articles Key Guides

Covering Violence: A Guide to Ethical Reporting About Victims and Trauma
Key Guides

Best Practices in Trauma Reporting: Ideas and Insights from Award-Winning Newspaper Articles
Key Guides