The unforgiving: Reflections on the resistance to forgiveness after atrocity

Law and Contemporary Problems

Volumn 72, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 33-49

  Brudholm, Thomas ^a   Rosoux, Valérie ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN   (Denmark)

^b UNIVERSITÉ CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN   (Belgium)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77950778744     PISSN: 00239186     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (62)

1. Vladimir Jankélévitch, Should We Pardon Them?, 22 CRITICAL INQUIRY 552, 567 (1996)
2. HANNAH ARENDT, EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM: A REPORT ON THE BANALITY OF EVIL 52 (1978)
3. There is no unanimous conception of forgiveness, and the uses and understandings of the term after atrocity display a considerable range of conflicting approaches. For interesting recent philosophical responses to the question of the nature of forgiveness.
4. see generally CHARLES GRISWOLD, FORGIVENESS: A PHILOSOPHICAL EXPLORATION (2008) (using both ancient and modern philosophy to examine forgiveness in both its interpersonal and political contexts, as well as its relation to our aspiration for reconciliation)
5. MARGARET WALKER, MORAL REPAIR (2006) (using realistic examples of personal betrayal and political violence to analyze how moral bonds are damaged by serious wrongs and what must be done to repair the damage)
6. Even though the role of NGOs, health-care workers, and mediators has not significantly changed, the emphasis put on forgiveness seems to be quite recent
7. See PENAL REFORM INTERNATIONAL, GACACA RESEARCH REPORT NO.7: INTEGRATED REPORT ON THE PILOT PHASE, JANUARY 2002-DECEMBER 2004 (2005), http://www.penalreform.org/integrated-report-on-gacacaresearch-and-monitoring-pilot-phase-january-2002-december.html.
8. see also S. Lefranc, Du droit à la paix. La circulation des techniques internationales de pacification par le bas, 174 ACTES DE LA RECHERCHE EN SCIENCES SOCIALES 48-67 (2008) (Fr.).
9. As the chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone, Bishop J.C. Humper, put in his foreword to the report of the commission, "Learning to forgive those who have wronged us is the first step we can take towards healing our traumatised nation.".
10. J.C. Humper, Foreword to 1 SIERRA LEONE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION, WITNESS TO TRUTH 2, 3 (2004).
11. See, e.g., EXPLORING FORGIVENESS (R.D. Enright & J. North eds., 1998).
12. J. MURPHY, GETTING EVEN: FORGIVENESS AND ITS LIMITS (2003).
13. A. SCHAAP, POLITICAL RECONCILIATION (2005).
14. For similar assessments, see Daniel Philpott, Religion, Reconciliation, and Transitional Justice: The State of the Field (Soc. Sci. Research Council, Working Paper, 2007), available at http://programs.ssrc.org/religion/reconciliation.pdf.
15. see also, Sharon Lamb, Forgiveness, Women, and Responsibility to the Group, 5 J. HUM. RTS. 45, 45-60 (2006).
16. For the praise of unconditional forgiveness
17. For the praise of the wish of a victim to be forgiven, see D. TUTU, NO FUTURE WITHOUT FORGIVENESS 147 (1999).
18. ESTHER MUJAWAYO & SOUAD BELHADDAD, LA FLEUR DE STÉPHANIE: ENTRE RÉCONCILIATION ET DÉNI 128 (2006) (Fr.) (translation by authors).
19. See Jonathan Paye-Layleh, I Ate Children's Hearts, Ex-Rebel Says, BBC NEWS, Jan. 22, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7200101.stm (reporting on Milton Blahyi's confession and request for forgiveness).
20. JEAN HATZFELD, MACHETE SEASON: THE KILLERS IN RWANDA SPEAK 196 (Linda Coverdale, trans., Picador 2006) (2003).
21. Jeffrie Murphy, Foreword to THOMAS BRUDHOLM, RESENTMENT'S VIRTUE: JEAN AMÉRY AND THE REFUSAL TO FORGIVE, at ix (2008)
22. For an extensive examination of this aspect of the advocacy of forgiveness
23. (reviewing advocacy of forgiveness by The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa). For an examination of ways in which advocating forgiveness risks jeopardizing the needs and autonomy of the victims.
24. see generally Thomas Brudholm, On the Advocacy of Forgiveness After Mass Atrocities, in THE RELIGIOUS IN RESPONSES TO MASS ATROCITY: INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES 124 (Thomas Brudholm & Thomas Cushman eds., 2009) [hereinafter Brudholm, Forgiveness after Mass Atrocities].
25. As we are featuring the written work of two victims who are extraordinarily lucid in explaining their resistance, it should be mentioned that we do not pretend to represent "the victims" as a general category, but rather to illustrate the possibility of an often-neglected normative stance
26. The English translation is JEAN AMÉRY, AT THE MIND'S LIMITS: CONTEMPLATIONS BY A SURVIVOR ON AUSCHWITZ AND ITS REALITIES (Sidney Rosenfeld & Stella P. Rosenfeld trans., 1980).
27. For a position that combines vehement opposition to the advocacy of cheap forgiving as well as high praise of the "miracle" of forgiveness
28. see VLADIMIR JANKÉLÉVITCH, FORGIVENESS (Andrew Kelley trans., 2005).
29. see also JEFFRIE MURPHIE, GETTING EVEN: FORGIVENESS AND ITS LIMITS (2003)
30. For works stressing the significance of public recognition
31. see generally TRUDY GOVIER, FORGIVENESS AND REVENGE (2002)
32. ANDREW SCHAAP, POLITICAL RECONCILIATION (2005)
33. RICHARD WALLACE, RESPONSIBILITY AND THE MORAL SENTIMENTS 12 (1994)
34. For the conceptualization of resentment as tied to reassurance
35. Estimates for the total number killed in the genocide vary from 500,000 to more than 1 million. According to the official census report of the Rwandan authorities (quoted by Paul Kagame in April 2004), 937,000 Tutsi and Hutu opponents were killed. According to Alison Des Forges, around 500,000 people were killed.
36. ALISON DES FORGES, LEAVE NONE TO TELL THE STORY: GENOCIDE IN RWANDA 15-16 (1999)
37. For further details, see YVES TERNON, L'INNOCENCE DES VICTIMES: AU SIÈCLE DES GÉNOCIDES 140 (2001) (Fr.).
38. René Lemarchand, Rwanda et Burundi: génocides croisés, in ISRAEL W. CHARNY, LE LIVRE NOIRE DE L'HUMANITÉ: ENCYCLOPÉDIE MONDIALE DES GÉNOCIDES 486, 486-87 (2001) (Fr.).
39. See JUSTICE ET GACACA: L'EXPERIENCE RWANDAISE ET LE GENOCIDE 75 (Françoise Digneffe and Jacques Fierens eds., 2003).
40. The gacaca court system started in 2002. In total there are 12,103 gacaca courts established nationwide, presided over by 169,442 inyangamugayo ("persons of integrity")-the local judges elected among the populace. The purpose of these courts is to gather survivors, witnesses, and suspects of genocide in order to establish the truth and to stop the culture of impunity by singling out those who actively participated in the killings. On the scope and limits of the gacaca courts.
41. see Bert Ingelaere, The Gacaca Courts in Rwanda, in TRADITIONAL JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION AFTER VIOLENT CONFLICT: LEARNING FROM AFRICAN EXPERIENCES 25, 25-59 (Luc Huyse & Mark Salter eds., 2008).
42. HANNAH ARENDT, THE HUMAN CONDITION 241 (2d ed. 1998).
43. "The committed sins have to be repressed and punished, but also forgiven. I invite the perpetrators to show courage and to confess, to repent, and to ask forgiveness.".
44. Paul Kagame, President, Republic of Rwanda, Address at Urugwiro Village in Kigali (June 18, 2002), available at http://www.gov.rw/government/president/index.html.
45. And later: "It is important that culprits confess their crimes and ask forgiveness to victims. On the one hand, the confession appeases their conscience, but above all these avowals comfort the survivors who can then learn, even though it is painful, how their close relatives were killed and where their bodies were abandoned.".
46. Colette Braeckman, Rwanda, dix ans après: Entretien avec Paul Kagamé [Rwanda, Ten Years Later: Interview with Paul Kagame], 103 POLITIQUE INTERNATIONALE 417 (2004) (Fr.).
47. Paul Kagame, President, Republic of Rwanda, Address at the Twelfth Commemoration of the Rwandan Genocide (Apr. 7, 2006), available at http://www.gov.rw/government/president/speeches/2006/07_04_06_genocide.html.
48. This story is a re-telling based on MUJAWAYO & BELHADDAD
49. ESTHER MUJAWAYO & SOUAD BELHADDAD, SURVIVANTES: RWANDA, HISTOIRE D'UN GENOCIDE 20 (2004) (Fr.) (translation by authors).
50. See Avega Agahozo, http://www.avega.org.rw/English.html (last visited Mar. 18, 2009).
51. Louis Bagilishya, Discours de la négation, dénis et politiques, in L'HISTOIRE TROUÉE: NÉGATION ET TÉMOIGNAGE 733 (Catherine Coquio ed., 2004) (Fr.).
52. Speciosa Mukayiranga, Sentiments de Rescapés, in L'HISTOIRE TROUÉE: NÉGATION ET TÉMOIGNAGE 783 (Catherine Coquio ed., 2004) (Fr.) (translation by authors).
53. JEAN HATZFELD, LA STRATÉGIE DES ANTILOPES 25 (2007) (Fr.) (translation by authors).
54. For an elaboration on this point, see Arne Johan Vetlesen, A Case for Resentment: Jean Améry Versus Primo Levi, 5 J. HUM. RTS. 44 (2006).
55. GAKENKE & UMUTARA, PENAL REFORM INTERNATIONAL, RAPPORT DE SYNTHÈSE DE MONITORING ET DE RECHERCHE SUR LA GACACA (2005), available at http://www.penalreform.org/resources/rep-ga7-2005-pilot-phase-fr.pdf (translation by authors).
56. Cf. Brudholm, Forgiveness after Mass Atrocity, supra note 14.
57. Immaculée Mukarwego, quoted in Colette Braeckman, Les fantômes d'Immaculée hantent toujours les collines, LE SOIR (Fr.), Apr. 7, 2004 (translation by authors).
58. JACQUES DERRIDA, ON COSMOPOLITANISM AND FORGIVENESS 41 (Mark Dooley & Michael Hughes trans., 2001).
59. The viability and propriety of forgiveness (variously understood) in the political realm has been debated intensely in recent years
60. See generally PETER DIGESER, POLITICAL FORGIVENESS (2001) (offering a secular and public concept of forgiveness)
61. (including a very critical discussion of the political use of forgiveness)
62. THE POLITICS OF PAST EVIL (Daniel Philpott ed., 2006) (including theological justifications of political forgiveness).