Since the aftermath of WWII the multidisciplinary debate on the relationship between mass atrocities, memory and redress has attracted attention by lawyers, historians, philosophers and sociologists. To overcome past atrocities, including historic crimes, justice need to be done, crimes to be established and victims to be afforded some kind of remedy. At the same time legal, political and economic difficulties militate against such a scenario and measures adopted at the national and international level have largely been inadequate to provide an appropriate redress, notwithstanding the increasing legalization of such scenarios especially through a growing ¿individualization¿ of claims.
The project aims to scrutinize challenges raised by mass atrocities in order to map out measures adopted in response to such events, duties requested to States to address such situations and potential best practices to be developed. In particular the project aims to focus on: sociological and historic perspectives addressing these issues and the relationship between individual and collective measures of redress; difficulties raised by legal instruments favouring oblivion and their relation with positive obligations; practice developed at the domestic and international level to address mass atrocities especially taking into account theoretical challenges and shortcomings raised in such scenarios; ¿crimes of history¿ dating back to historical events that raise several theoretical issues such as those related to intertemporal law and intergenerational justice.
A systematic analysis of such issues is still lacking. Therefore, a comprehensive multidisciplinary exam of this topic would provide a significant innovative theoretical contribution, especially taking into account its continuous relevance as emphasized by recent cases of States involved in transitions processes or addressing historic crimes.
The Project addresses significant challenges for social communities disrupted by forms of violence that shock the global conscience. As a result it aims at stimulating social and political initiatives which may facilitate the settlement of the current (and future) disputes on reparation in cases of mass atrocities.
In particular, the focus on the identification of best practices and the development of a model statute would represent a significant contribution for subsequent analysis and potential solutions in this area, able to provide future policy-makers with clear guidelines for possible reparation mechanisms to be established in the aftermath of mass atrocities. In particular this activity would permit to highlight the role of victims and their relatives in reparation mechanisms as well as to focus on measures not having a monetary character to facilitate the settlement of such disputes. For instance the emphasis on measures aimed to maintain and foster a collective memory of these events and to properly reconstruct the historical origins of these events could contribute to overcome tension and reinforce the stability of the political, social and legal order of a given community affected by mass atrocities.
Several scenarios still need to find a proper solution, such as claims actually pending before Italian courts with regard to the crimes committed by Nazi Germany during World War Two or those related to several States involved in transition processes. Proposals developed by the Project would contribute to provide a clear legal framework to face with such scenarios thus stimulating initiatives aimed to address them in proper terms.
Similarly, the project will significantly contribute to the scientific and general debate on these contemporaneous challenges and will take advantage from its innovative character and specific modalities to reach a significant audience and relevant stakeholders involved in transitions processes or dealing with cases of ¿crimes of history¿.
Among the purposes of the research, the multidisciplinary method that will be adopted will promote a new approach to the study of redress for mass atrocities. This will be possible through a constant dialogue between the members of the research project. Preliminary results will be disseminated through seminars and workshops and their publication in a series of working papers made available on the website of the project and electronic journals, also in order to stimulate further discussions and feed-backs. They will consist both on ad hoc papers on different topics as well as reports of workshops to be published in English in order to favour their dissemination. Furthermore, the next phase will be characterized by the elaboration of a comprehensive edited volume in English on denial and redress for mass atrocities to be submitted to a leading international publisher. In order to collectively discuss draft papers and improve their content, a final conference will be organized at the end of the project.
A clear example of the innovative character of the project and of the significant impact it may have is provided by the international community recent action with respect to salvery. In 2015, Unesco launche d a programme aimed at fostering the historical memory on slavery and slave trade. This inaugurated the ¿International Decade for People of African Descent¿ whose purpose is, among others, to ¿ensure that textbooks and other educational materials reflect historical facts accurately as they relate to past tragedies and atrocities, in particular slavery, the slave trade, the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism, so as to avoid stereotypes and the distortion or falsification of these historic facts, which may lead to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance¿. This recontruction of a collective memory is considered as one of the primary means to ensure national reconciliation after mass atrocities. The document adopted by Unesco on 16 November 1999 and two years later by the United Nations (Durban Conference, 2001) puts the emphasis on the need to identify the historical truth about the tragedy constitued by the slave trade and slavery for the entire human race, to throw light on the resulting intercultural dialogue and to draw attention to the need to broaden and examine in more detail study of their impact on Europe, Africa, the Americas and the rest of the world. This represents an invitation for storiographers to favour archives research and to use new technologies to explore existing documentation in order to include it in educational programmes of Member States. Symbolically, the United Nations chose August 23rd as the day to celebrate the fight against slavery, the day in which Haiti revolted against France ¿ a nation that during the revolution had recognised slaves¿ rights or as stated in a decree of the National Assembly «les malheurs de leur expatriation».