Confronting the Silence and Creating a Shared Memory After a Violent Past. A Case Study of Guatemala

Academic Paper from the year 2021 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, grade: A+, , language: English, abstract: This paper's central argument is whether collective memory played a role in promoting social healing in Guatemala. Examining the cases of Rwanda and Guatemala demonstrate how collectively and individually remembering and telling the truth about unspeakable atrocities has played a central role in both official and personal efforts to reckon with the legacies of brutal dictatorships and to move forward towards democracy and healing. Individuals and societies face the challenge of dealing with memories of human rights violations in the aftermath of conflict. However, scholars have paid relatively little attention to how individuals and societies respond to group aggression concerning social practices, rituals, signs, and recovery by micro dynamics of remembrance.