Human rights violations in Latin America have led the Inter-American Court to demand that governments provide reparations to victims. This now includes “Symbolic Reparations,” along with material restitutions. This is an opportunity to include survivors and their families in the work of creating a culture that can respond to the Court’s demand for “no repetition” of abuses. Participatory practices, especially in education, hold out hope for co-constructing a sustainable peace for which at Cultural Agents we have embarked in developing, in close collaboration with scholars across disciplines, recommendations to the courts across the Americas as well as producing new academic research which could aid in urgent healing processes.
“Travesía.” Las Tejedoras de Mampuján. (Museo Nacional, Bogotá, 2015)
Conferences and Symposia:
● 2019 (November) “When the Symbolic becomes really real (redux)” with Sam Durant and Prof. Nick Harris. Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University.
● 2019 (April) “Memories on/for a future reconciliation” with Renato Cisneros, José Carlos Agüero, Lurgio Gavilán, Alexandra Hibbett, and Alberto Vergara. David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University.
● 2019 (April) “Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition – Carr Center reflects on Colombia – A dialogue with President Juan Manuel Santos.” Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University.
● 2019 (April) “Integral Reparations” Panel with José Falconi, Ana María Reyes and Ana Manuela Ochoa Arias. Colombian Conference 2019. Harvard-MIT-Boston University, MIT Wong Auditorium, Cambridge, MA.
● 2018 (December) Workshop and Roundtable on “Implementation of Recommendations and Orders of International Bodies in Individual Cases: Looking at the Future.” Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, Washington D.C.
● 2018 (December) ”¿Qué significa reparación simbólica y cómo reconstruye sociedades?” [What does symbolic reparation mean and how does it rebuild societies?] Human rights violations in Latin America have led the Inter-American Court to demand that governments provide reparations to victims. This now includes “Symbolic Reparations,” along with material restitutions. This is an opportunity to include survivors and their families in the work of creating a culture that can respond to the Court’s demand for “no repetition” of abuses. Participatory practices, especially in education, hold out hope for co-constructing a sustainable peace, because “restoring” the conditions that led to violence will prepare new outbreaks. To discuss this issue and the importance of symbolic reparation in the processes of peace and justice, CONNECTAS and Cultural Agents held a virtual meeting on December 10th, 2018 with Salvador del Solar (former Minister of Culture of Peru). Included were José Falconi (Director of Cultural Agents), and Prof. Doris Sommer (Faculty-Director of Cultural Agents).
● 2018 (May) “When Symbolic becomes Really Real – A conversation between Sam Durant and Alvaro Santos.” Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University.
● 2017 (May) “Between Reasons and Causes: Memory Museums 2.0 and the problems of event narrative.” Panel “Symbolic Reparations in Latin America.” Latin American Studies Association Annual Conference (LASA), Universidad Católica del Perú (Lima, Perú).
● 2017 (May) “Los monumentos con las armas de las FARC EP.” “Conversatorio No. 4 “Acuerdo de paz y justicia transicional, restaurativa y especial para la paz.” Universidad Externado de Colombia (Bogotá, Colombia).
● 2017 (May) Conversatorio Reparación Simbólica Posconflicto (Symbolic Reparations and the Post-Conflict). Universidad Externado de Colombia (Bogotá, Colombia).
● 2017 (April) “Symbolic Reparations.” In conjunction with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Symbolic Reparation Research Project (Cambridge, MA). Speakers included: Ángela Pérez, Jennifer Schirmer, Lisa Laplante, Liliana Obregón, José G. Nugent, Cristina Lleras, Sergio Rojas, Julian Bonder, Peter Win, James E. Young, Doris Sommer, Benvenuto Chavajay, Juan Manuel Echavarría, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Tania Bruguera, Marco Abarca, Robin Greeley, Michael Orcwicz.
● 2016 (April) Antanas Mockus y Marco Abarca: Diálogo sobre reparaciones simbólicas. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
● 2015 (July) “Acts of Presence: Absence and Remembrance in Symbolic Reparations.” International Conference on Symbolic Reparations to the Victims of Human Rights. Departamento de Derecho Constitucional, Universidad del Externado (Bogotá, Colombia).
● 2015 (June) Conversatorio Internacional: Reparación Simbólica a la víctimas de violación a los derechos humanos. Bogotá, Colombia.
● 2015 (April) Requiem N.N., Film by Juan Manuel Echavarría. Harvard-MIT-BU-Tufts, “Colombia Building Peace 2015 Conference,” Boston University, Boston, MA.
● 2015 (April) “Memorials, Symbolic Reparations and the Law of Victims in Colombia.” Colombia: Building Peace/2015 Colombian Conference at MIT-Harvard and BU, Boston University, Boston, MA.
Relevant Bibliography
● 2020 (March) “Repairing Symbolic Reparations: Assessing the Effectiveness of Aesthetic Memorialization in the Inter-American System of Human Rights.” Robin Greeley, Michael Orwicz, Jose Falconi, Ana Maria Reyes and Fernando Rosenberg. The International Journal of Transitional Justice. Volume 14. Issue 1. pp. 165-192.
● 2019 Actas del Primer Congreso sobre Reparación Simbólica en Colombia [Proceedings of the First Conference on Symbolic Reparations in Colombia]. José Luis Falconi, Liliana Mendoza and Yolanda Sierra (Eds.), Universidad Externado de Colombia Press (Bogotá, Colombia), In Spanish.