Remembering past atrocities : the duty of memory in international law

Abstract

From serious violations of human rights, international law derives a set of consequences that fall to the responsible states. These consequences take the form of secondary obligations arising from primary rules and standards, which guide governments in the process of coming to terms with a violent past. This thesis argues that some of these legal constraints, because of the manner in which they have been developed in practice, may affect the way wrongdoing states choose to deal with their past. As a result, they influence the processes of memory-making within societies. Through the legal analysis of international norms and their application to, and implementation in, situations of gross and systematic human rights abuses, this research develops the concept of a duty of memory under international law. In so doing, it offers a critical assessment of the ways international law may affect official representations of the past in the present, playing the role of vector of memory.