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Against Standardization of Memory
- Human Rights Quarterly
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 39, Number 2, May 2017
- pp. 296-318
- 10.1353/hrq.2017.0019
- Article
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This article deals with the rise of memorialization standards and policy-oriented attempts to engage transitional societies to develop and adopt specific normative forms of remembrance. The transitional justice paradigm brought a tremendous change moving the paradigm from a "duty to remember" to policy-oriented "memorialization standards" that promote Western memorial models as a template for the representation of past tragedies or mass crimes. The article argues that the human rights regime mandates normative standards that de-historicize and de-contextualize local knowledge key, which not only disables different patterns of dealing with a traumatic past but also may strengthen societal divisions on the ground.