Book Chapter by Arnaud Kurze
New Critical Spaces in Transitional Justice: Gender, Art & Memory, 2019
This chapter explores the creation of alternative transitional justice spaces in post-conflict co... more This chapter explores the creation of alternative transitional justice spaces in post-conflict contexts, particularly concentrating on the role of art and the impact of social movements to address human rights abuses. Drawing from post-authoritarian Tunisia, it scrutinizes the work of contemporary youth activists and artists to deal with the past and foster sociopolitical change. Although these vanguard protesters provoked the overthrow of President Zine El Abdine Ben Ali in 2011, the power vacuum was quickly filled by old elites. The exclusion of young revolutionaries from political decision-making led to unprecedented forms of mobilization to account for repression and injustice under the ancien regime. During this process, art served as a medium to create these innovative spaces of deliberation. The study builds on Foucault’s concept of heterotopia – spaces of otherness that are simultaneously physical and mental – to fuel new insights on the challenges associated with generating spaces of memory and accountability. It is based on over three dozen in-depth narrative interviews with local actors and content analysis of art campaigns and collective action. The findings demonstrate that the emergence of this new fragile spatiality is nevertheless contingent on contested visions and memories of Tunisia’s secularist and Islamist political traditions.
Transitional Justice and Civil Society in the Balkans, Dec 31, 2012
Throughout the 1990s the state of Yugoslavia dissolved, ravaged by horrendous conflict. Since, se... more Throughout the 1990s the state of Yugoslavia dissolved, ravaged by horrendous conflict. Since, several retributive and restorative mechanisms to cope with past atrocities have been attempted and social activists and civil society organizations have increasingly gained ground in these processes. Recently, several local human rights organizations have launched a regional fact-finding initiative called RECOM to cope with the past. Instead, however, of reiterating conventional critique on the effectiveness of truth-seeking projects, it is more compelling to inquire about the topographical changes of human rights law and the practices of its proponents. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the former Yugoslavia, the authors examine what role human rights advocates play in transitional justice settings and how they implement and adapt their practices, focusing on their risks, challenges and prospects vis-à-vis the judiciary and society. Employing concepts of sociology of spaces—which focuses on the creation of spaces through action and the interdependence of action on spatial structures—they argue that activists move between different spaces constituted by narratives of justice and truth.
Articles by Arnaud Kurze
Kritika Kultura, 2019
This research discusses the challenges of establishing a collective memory for gay victims of the... more This research discusses the challenges of establishing a collective memory for gay victims of the Nazi terror in World War II and examines the introduction of gay victimhood into the public sphere through memorialization efforts. While scholarly accounts on gays and the Holocaust emerged in the 1970s, little is known about the emergence and consolidation of a public narrative on gay persecutions under the Nazis. It raises important questions, including why a public voice for crimes against sexual minorities in World War II emerged only hesitantly? Drawing on historical gay memorialization processes in Germany, the author maps the obstacles for recognition, including external and internal challenges in expanding existing narratives and a collective memory of the past. This fraught advocacy work remains nonetheless crucial to promote commemorations of persecution and discrimination against minority groups that have received limited public acknowledgement.
While literature in transitional justice has addressed conventional retributive and re- storative... more While literature in transitional justice has addressed conventional retributive and re- storative justice mechanisms, scholarship focusing on the rise in youth activism to con- front war crimes is underdeveloped. This article draws on over two-dozen in-depth interviews with youth activist leaders across the former Yugoslavia, focusing on their performance-based campaigns. I explain why the emergence of transitional justice youth activism in the Balkans falls short of the significant institutional reforms of ear- lier youth movement mobilizations in the region. I also throw light on why their performance activism is distinct from practices of older, established human rights organizations in the region. Notwithstanding, I argue that this performance-based ad- vocacy work has fuelled the creation of a new spatiality of deliberation – so-called strategic confrontation spaces – to contest the culture of impunity and challenge the politics of memory in the former Yugoslavia.
This article critically examines the concept of legal empowerment as it has been used with refere... more This article critically examines the concept of legal empowerment as it has been used with reference to transitional justice, mapping its rise and impact based on a selection of case studies. In recent decades, international transitional justice advocacy has evolved dramatically, with practice increasingly emphasising the centrality of criminal accountability for violence, precisely as more holistic approaches have emerged that have broadened the remit of transitional justice. Post-conflict justice advocates have thus become professionalised transitional justice entrepreneurs working on issues such as democratic transitions, rule of law and human rights. A legal empowerment discourse has emerged in a number of scholarly debates that discuss legalistic and normative issues related to the implementation of retributive and restorative justice mechanisms. In theory, the concept of legal empowerment addresses the issue of social exclusion in transitions, increasing the rights of the marginalised. In practice, however, legal empowerment has disappointed and raises several issues around its performance that are scrutinised in this article. Drawing on case studies in Nepal, Tunisia and Bosnia-Herzegovina the authors analyse issues related to agency, institutions and structure, and argue for a needs-centred, participatory approach in place of the rights-based legal empowerment concept.
Years of international and national accountability efforts in the former Yugoslavia have only par... more Years of international and national accountability efforts in the former Yugoslavia have only partially helped post-conflict societies to transition. To complement retributive justice efforts more recently, human rights activists have launched a campaign to establish a regional truth commission. This article explores the intricate efforts among nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in several states across the region-particularly Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Croatia and Serbia-to coordinate this movement. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews, this study illustrates the movement's struggle from within-caused by the conflicting interests of its members-and from outside, as it seeks support from international and region-specific organizations as well as national governments. While activists have remained unsuccessful in institutionalizing new truth spaces, this article argues that the state-centric strategy of human rights advocates during the campaign widened the gap between the activist leaders and victims' groups, their principal supporters.
Report by Arnaud Kurze
Rapporteur's Report, 2010
Papers by Arnaud Kurze
Development and Change, Oct 28, 2008
Routledge eBooks, Nov 14, 2023
Routledge eBooks, Aug 24, 2022
Uploads
Book Chapter by Arnaud Kurze
Articles by Arnaud Kurze
Report by Arnaud Kurze
Papers by Arnaud Kurze