Accountibility

Responsibility in times of pandemic In the first part of this essay, the author provides a theoretical framework on responsibility. The word appeared in the modern era, together with the emerging of a new type of individual versus the traditional one. In the second part, she focuses on the concept of responsibility, starting from the experience of coronavirus. During the pandemic, it has been among the most used words and it appeared as a multiform concept that includes respect, liberty, relationship, care, accountability, and as a basic principle of democratic life. It includes especially a form of reciprocity in care and respect. An interesting interweaving between legal obligation and moral responsibility as self-persuasion eventually arises. Human vulnerability emerged together with the necessity of responsibility as mutual concern and care of Earth. It comes out as a peculiar concept, which represents a coincidence of opposites, as autonomy and limit, freedom and bonds, rights and duties.

This article discusses whether the Brazilian State's 1995 official apology for its sys-5 tematic human rights violations during the military dictatorship qualifies 6 as a "meaningful" state apology. A meaningful state apology-an act that publicly 7 recognizes the state's wrongdoings and expresses regret-changes the social relations 8 between the state and groups of victims and introduces new human rights values. How-9 ever, numerous post-1995 public statements (law decrees, legal appeals, Supreme Court 10 verdicts, and official statements) effectively deny the Brazilian State's responsibility for 11 human rights crimes. This article asks: Who wants an apology, and why? Who are the 12 winners and losers in this contest, and why? In Brazil, it concludes, a comprehensive 13 social and normative change within all state institutions has yet to occur. Moving beyond 14 the criterion of the apologizer's sincerity, empirical evidence from Brazil contributes to 15 a theory of state apologies by adding a new criterion: A state apology is meaningful if 16 it is authoritative and supported, rather than undermined, by other sectors of the state 17 apparatus. The final report of the Brazilian Truth Commission, which is due in 2014, 18 presents a golden opportunity to reissue a meaningful apology, endorsed by all state 19 institutions. 20 On March 5, 1991, the Chilean President, Patricio Aylwin, issued a televised public apology 21 in the very same football stadium where several thousand opponents of the Pinochet regime 22 (1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990) were detained and interrogated, and even, in some cases, killed. His voice 23 cracking with emotion, he apologized to the families of the victims of the dictatorship 24 and appealed to the perpetrators (Chilean military and security forces) to recognize the 25 suffering they had caused and to help heal the wounds. During the televised ceremony, 26 which introduced the final report of the first Chilean Truth Commission (the so-called 27 Rettig Commission, named after its chairman), the names of victims were beamed onto a 28 massive screen New York Times 1991; Celermajer 2009: 36).