Legacy Of Human Rights Violations Research Articles

Grandstanding Instead of Deliberative Policy-Making: Transitional Justice, Publicness and Parliamentary Questions in the Croatian Parliament

ABSTRACT Addressing the legacy of human rights violations in public can benefit victims, post-conflict societies and democracy building. But publicness of transitional justice (TJ) processes can also have opposite effects. We assess the relationship between publicness and TJ by leveraging the democratic deliberation theory concerned with the impact of publicness on the quality of policy-making. A comparative analysis of oral and written questions about TJ in the Croatian parliament (2004–20) shows that members of parliament use oral questions for nationalist grandstanding and written questions for substantive TJ policy deliberation. We demonstrate how publicness afforded by parliaments stymies TJ’s normative goals.

National Constitution: A Foundation for Exemplary Leadership and Development in African Transition Economies

National constitution: A foundation for exemplary leadership and development in African transition economies. The study sets out to accomplish these objectives to: investigate the causes of the low speed accumulation of human capital; ascertain why Nigerian leaders make disastrous choices resulting in failing health and educational system as well as examine why Military Decree No 24 CFRN (1999) continues to serve as CFRNA in a democratic dispensation. The study used a secondary instrument for data collection from relevant journals, magazines, books and internet. The gap in literature shows that most African States are still chained to Military Decrees as their respective constitutions. The supreme court over rules itself, consequently any sovereign, military or civilian, can overrule itself. The findings are that: the military personnel attained minimal educational level, consequently, its decree No 24 CFRN (1999) perpetuates illiteracy; and the military rule left in its wake, a sad legacy of human rights violations, stunted national growth a corporatism and static state, increased corruption and posing the greatest threat to democracy and national integration. Based on these findings, the recommendations are that: Decree No 24 CFRNA is being stretched beyond its usefulness: This paper advocates for a transition period for the formulation of a progressive democratic constitution and the raising of the educational level to a good first Degree from a recognized university for membership of the National Assembly. The conclusion is that Decree 24 CFRNA (1999) and its – up to at least school certificate level turns retired wealthy military generals and officers as unprepared political leaders and actors politically. The Nigerian culture of illiteracy is the exact symbol of its laws.

Sentencias de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos y reacciones estatales. méxico y uruguay ante los delitos del pasado

Entre 2009 y 2011 la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos dictó dos sentencias condenatorias a los Estados mexicano y uruguayo. Los casos pueden considerarse como paradigmáticos del legado represivo de los años setenta y ochenta. Los Estados involucrados han tenido distintos itinerarios en sus regímenes políticos aunque los delitos pudieran llegar a considerarse similares. Los contextos políticos en los que se ha debatido la herencia de violaciones de los derechos humanos también guardan diferencias. En el artículo se observan aspectos de los itinerarios que llevaron a las sentencias, principales reacciones oficiales ante esos fallos y se exploran las razones de tal comportamiento.

Transitional Justice and Protracted Accountability in Re-democratised Uruguay, 1985–2011

AbstractThis article analyses the protracted process by which democratised Uruguay has come to terms with its legacy of human rights violations. Central to this process has been the nature of Uruguayan transitional policies and their more recent partial unravelling. Due to the negotiated transition to electoral democracy, civilian political elites approached the transitional dilemma of balancing normative expectations and political contingency by promulgating legal immunity, for years avoiding initiatives to pursue trials or launch an official truth commission, unlike neighbouring Argentina. A constellation of national and transnational factors (including recurrent initiatives by social and political forces) eventually opened up new institutional ground for belated truth-telling and accountability for some historical wrongs – and yet, attempts to challenge the blanket legal impunity failed twice through popular consultation and in a recent parliamentary vote. Each time, the government officially projected a narrative that sacralised national consensus and reconciliation, now enshrined in two sovereign popular votes, and the adoption of a forward-looking democratic perspective.

The Politics of the Past: The Southern Cone and Southern Europe in Comparative Perspective

This article examines comparatively how six countries—Greece, Portugal and Spain in Southern Europe, and Argentina, Uruguay and Chile in the Southern Cone of Latin America—addressed the legacy of human rights violations under authoritarian rule during the transition to democracy and beyond. It is argued that, while the international and regional context or zeitgeist helped frame the issue and the expectations and actions of the various players involved, domestic conditions were crucial in shaping these processes. Specifically, we look at the transitional context and authoritarian legacies and broader historical legacies. The second half of the essay focuses on the ‘politics of memory’ and how this relates to transitional justice efforts.

In exchange for truth: The polish lustrations and the South African amnesty process*

Poland and South Africa have each inherited a similar legacy of human rights violations perpetrated by previous authoritarian regimes; they each underwent complicated political transitions and used similar methods of dealing with the remnants of their previous regimes. South Africa granted amnesty from criminal prosecution to perpetrators in exchange for truth about their involvement in the violations of the past. In Poland leading public posts were granted in accordance with the same principle of truth exchange. However, existing frameworks for the study of transitional justice do not allow for immediate comparison of the relative benefits and pitfalls of granting amnesty to criminals vis-à-vis measures to provide public sector employment. This paper extends the existing framework of transitional justice and applies it to the study of the major policy choices of the Polish lustration process (1999–2002) and the South African amnesty process (1996–2000). They encompass components such as the formal scope of truth, the choice of particular procedures, sanctions, transparency and impartiality. The comparison provides us with a more nuanced understanding of the institutional mechanisms that allow for the utilisation of the meaning of truth in complicated transitions from authoritarian regimes. *The original version of the paper was presented at the joint annual meeting of the Law & Society Association and the Canadian LSA in Vancouver in 2002.

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:Lockhart, Of Things of the Indies: Essays Old and New in Early Latin American HistoryBarman, Citizen Emperor: Pedro II and the Making of Brazil, 1825–91Harding, A Refuge in Thunder: Candomblé and Alternative Spaces of Blackness in BrazilBuffington, Criminal and Citizen in Modern MexicoOchoa, Feeding Mexico: The Political Uses of Food since 1910Clarke, Class, Ethnicity, and Community in Southern Mexico: Oaxaca’s PeasantriesRovira, Women of Maize: Indigenous Women and the Zapatista RebellionAssies, The Challenge of Diversity: Indigenous peoples and reform of the state in Latin AmericaTulchin and Garland, Social Development in Latin America. The Politics of ReformGelles, Water and Power in Highland Peru: the Cultural Politics of Irrigation and DevelopmentStarn, Nightwatch: the Politics of Protest in the AndesPayne, Uncivil Movements: The Armed Right Wing and Democracy in Latin AmericaSilva, The Soldier and the State in South America: Essays in Civil‐Military RelationsRoniger and Sznajder, The Legacy of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone, Argentina, Chile, and UruguaySmith, Inevitable Partnership: Understanding Mexico‐US RelationsRoniger and Sznajder, (eds.) Constructing Collective Identities and Shaping Public Spheres: Latin American PathsLarraín, Identity and Modernity in Latin AmericaCaister, Mexico City: A Cultural and Literary Companion

Luis Roniger and Mario Sznajder, The Legacy of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. xvi+367, £48.00 hb.

Luis Roniger and Mario Sznajder, <i>The Legacy of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone</i> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. xvi+367, £48.00 hb.

The Legacy of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay

Introduction Repression and the Discourse of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone Shaping the Public Sphere and the Legacy of Human Right Violations National Reconciliation and the Disruptive Potential of the Legacy of Human Rights Violations Restructuring the Realm of Human Rights in the Southern Cone The Multiple Refraction of the Various Institutional Paths Memory and Oblivion in the Redemocratized Southern Cone The Transformation of Collective Identities in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay Conclusions

The legacy of human-rights violations in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay

The legacy of human-rights violations in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay

The Legacy of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. By Luis Roniger and Mario Sznajder. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 384p. $84.00.

The Legacy of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. By Luis Roniger and Mario Sznajder. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 384p. $84.00. - Volume 94 Issue 3

The crises beyond past crisis: The unsolved legacy of human rights violations in the Southern Cone

The crises beyond past crisis: The unsolved legacy of human rights violations in the Southern Cone

Paths of Citizenship and the Legacy of Human Rights Violations: The Cases of Redemocratized Argentina and Uruguay

Through a comparison of redemocratized Argentina and Uruguay, this article shows how distinct historical paths of citizenship affect the strategies and practices enacted in different political communities. The analysis focuses on the societal confrontation with the legacy of human rights violations as the new democratic governments attempted to balance normative principles with political contingencies. Embedded in their particular paths of citizenship, both societies adopted different strategies of post‐dictatorial justice and reconciliation, with Argentina achieving a tenuous institutional resolution of this confrontation, while Uruguay achieved a shared resolution, bolstered by popular mobilization and debate, which reinforced the component of civility in its collective identity.

The Legacy of Human Rights Violations and the Collective Identity of Redemocratized Uruguay

The legacy of human rights violations from the authoritarian period in Uruguay and the partial treatment of these violations under the democratic government have impacted profoundly the format of contemporary Uruguayan society. In order to trace this impact, it is necessary to analyze the legacy of human rights violations within the framework of the formation and reshaping of Uruguay's collective identities in general and its traditions of civility in particular. Uruguayan collective identities have been structured, even more than elsewhere in Latin America, through the state. Due to British international priorities and against the background of rivalries between Brazil and the Rio de la Plata, an independent state was established in the Banda Oriental del Uruguay by 1828. Since this time, the Uruguayan state itself has been creating the nation through a process of constructing a truly imagined