Memorialization in transitional justice contexts: interactions between local practices and international standards in Guatemala

In contexts of massive and systematic human rights violations arising from authoritarian regimes or armed conflicts, governments and civil society actors undertakes a range of efforts to deal with these legacies of violence and work towards non-repetition of violence. Jointly, these efforts constitute what is commonly known as transitional justice (TJ). Memorialization is an important element of TJ, and was recently labelled the fifth pillar of TJ due to its alleged potential to further peace, rule of law and respect for human rights.

Despite this recent surge of attention for memorialization in policy and law, little is known about how, for example, international human rights standards regarding memorialization affect local memorialization processes undertaken by civil society, or vice versa.

This research project therefore seeks to

• 1) map the evolution of memorialization standards in international human rights law in terms of nature, scope and functions,
• 2) analyze local memorialization practices in a concrete case in the highlands of Guatemala where indigenous civil society has been engaged in innovative memory work, and
• 3) examine the interaction effects between these various layers of memorialization initiatives. This will result in an in-depth understanding of how global standards and local practices influence one another, which is relevant beyond the Guatemalan case, and which is urgently needed in light of the abovementioned policy evolutions.

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