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Memorialization generally refers to the process of preserving memories of people or events. It can be a form of address or
petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offi ...
, or a ceremony of remembrance or commemoration.


Memorialization as a human right

Memorialization is a universal need for both those being memorialized and those who are grieving. Although historically it was limited to the elite and only practiced in the highest societal classes, it is now almost considered a fundamental
human right Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...
for all people.


Memorialization and transitional justice

In the context of transitional justice, memorialization is used to honor the victims of human rights abuses. Memorials can help governments reconcile tensions with victims by demonstrating respect and acknowledging the past. They can also help to establish a record of history, and to prevent the recurrence of abuse. Memorials can also be serious social and political forces in democracy-building efforts. Memorials are also a form of
reparations Reparation(s) may refer to: Christianity * Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation * Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin History *War reparations **World War I reparations, made from ...
, or compensation efforts that seek to address past
human rights violations Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...
. They aim to provide compensation for losses endured by victims of abuse, and remedy prior wrongdoing. They also publicly recognize that victims are entitled to redress and respect. The United Nations Basic Principles on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation recognizes “commemorations and tributes to the victims” as a form of reparation. There are numerous types of memorials used as transitional justice initiatives. These include architectural
memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of ...
s, museums, and other commemorative events. For instance, in northern
Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The ...
, monuments, annual prayer ceremonies, and a mass grave were created in response to the war conducted by and against the
Lord’s Resistance Army The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), also known as the Lord's Resistance Movement, is a rebel group and heterodox Christian group which operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the ...
there. Another example is the
Museum of Memory and Human Rights The Museum of Memory and Human Rights (in Spanish: ''Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos'') is a museum in Santiago, Chile, which commemorates the victims of human rights violations during the military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet ...
in
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
, which was created to document abuses by the former
military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the ...
there.


Challenges of memorialization

Memorialization can arouse controversy and present certain risks. In unstable political situations, memorials may increase desire for revenge and catalyze further violence. They are highly politicized processes that represent the will of those in power. They are thus difficult to shape, and international relief workers, peacekeepers, and
NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...
risk being drawn into disputes about the creation or maintenance of memorial sites. Yet they also have the potential to redress historical grievances and enable societies to progress. Guy Beiner has introduced a concept of ''decommemorating'' in reference to hostility towards acts of commemoration that can result in violent assaults and in iconoclastic defacement or destruction of monuments. Beiner's studies suggest that rather than stamping out memorialization, decommemorating can paradoxically, function as a form of ambiguous remembrance, sustaining interest in controversial memorials. Destruction of monuments can also trigger renewed acts of memorialization (which Beiner labelled "re-commemorating").Guy Beiner
Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster (Oxford University Press, 2018)
pp. 356-443.


See also

*
Cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...
*
Truth-seeking Truth-seeking processes allow societies to examine and come to grips with past crimes and atrocities and prevent their future repetition. Truth-seeking often occurs in societies emerging from a period of prolonged conflict or authoritarian rule. The ...
* Transitional Justice *
Transitional Justice Institute The Ulster University's Transitional Justice Institute (TJI), is a law-led multidisciplinary research institute of Ulster University which is physically located at the Jordanstown, and Magee campuses. It was created in 2003, making it the first an ...
*
Reparations (transitional justice) Reparations are broadly understood as compensation given for an abuse or injury. The colloquial meaning of reparations has changed substantively over the last century. In the early 1900s, reparations were interstate exchanges (see war reparations) ...
* Yom HaShoah (Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day) Israel * National Day of Commemoration (Ireland) * Commemoration of Husayn ibn Ali * Khojaly Massacre Commemoration Day * Commemorations of the Mountain Meadows massacre * Holocaust Memorial Days *
Moment of silence A moment of silence (also referred to as a minute's silence or a one-minute silence) is a period of silent contemplation, prayer, reflection, or meditation. Similar to flying a flag at half-mast, a moment of silence is often a gesture of ...
* International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured * Gettysburg Rostrum (Battlefield venue for historical commemorations) *
Crime Victims' Rights Week National Crime Victims' Rights Week is an annual commemoration in the United States that promotes victims' rights and services. The week is marked by an award ceremony held in Washington, D.C., in which individuals and organizations that demonstra ...
Annual United States commemoration that promotes victims' rights and services. *
Maaveerar Day Maaveerar Naal (Great Heroes' Day; ta, மாவீரர் நாள் ''Māvīrar Nāḷ'') is a remembrance day observed by Sri Lankan Tamils to remember the deaths of militants who fought with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to ...
or Heroes' Day. Commemoration observed by Tamil people to remember the deaths of militants. * Sacred Defence Week Iranian annual commemoration of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. * Bataan Memorial Death March Annual commemoration of the
Bataan Death March The Bataan Death March ( Filipino: ''Martsa ng Kamatayan sa Bataan''; Spanish: ''Marcha de la muerte de Bataán'' ; Kapampangan: ''Martsa ning Kematayan quing Bataan''; Japanese: バターン死の行進, Hepburn: ''Batān Shi no Kōshin'') ...
.


Further reading

* Tobie S. Meyer-Fong. ''What Remains: Coming to Terms with Civil War in 19th Century China.'' (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013). . A study of the
Taiping rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It last ...
in mid 19th century China: its victims, their experience of the war, and the memorialization of the war. * Report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed Memorialization processes http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/CulturalRights/A-HRC-25-49_en.pdf *Louis Bickford, “Memoryworks/memory works”, in Transitional Justice, Culture and Society: Beyond Outreach, Clara Ramírez-Barat, ed. (New York, Social Science Research Council, 2014): https://s3.amazonaws.com/ssrc-cdn1/crmuploads/new_publication_3/%7B222A3D3D-C177-E311-A360-001CC477EC84%7D.pdf


References


External links


International Center for Transitional Justice, Truth and Memory page
{{Authority control Human rights Memorials by commemoration Memory Reparations Transitional justice