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Memory

What is it all about?

How societies organize the remembrance of past crimes

Memory is one of the pillars of transitional justice, which refers to the acknowledgment and consideration of past events, particularly injustices or human rights violations. Justice Info covers how societies organize the remembrance of past crimes, especially following trials or truth commissions.

Representatives and dignitaries of Syrian communities attend a two-day national dialogue conference in Damascus (Syria)
Seeking justice in Syria: the advantages of the Assad regime
27 March 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
Trying to figure out the landscape of mass crimes justice initiatives on Syria, after the fall of former president Bashar el-Assad, can only be an uncertain prediction game. In this podcast, Uğur Üngör talks about what we know.
In Switzerland, crimes committed against nomadic peoples (Yenish, Sinti and Manouche) have been recognised by the government as ‘crimes against humanity’. Photo: Yenish children play the schwyzerörgeli, a small accordion, in front of a vehicle parked in an encampment. This was a “dark chapter in Swiss history”
28 February 2025 by Julia Crawford
On February 19, Switzerland admitted it committed a “crime against humanity” in removing thousands of Traveller children from their families over a period of 50 years. Adult Yenish and Sinti people were also victimized. This is th [...]
80 years on, remembrance starts for France’s “Nomads”
10 February 2025 by Lise Foisneau
Eighty years after the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, we still do not know how many so-called “Nomads” were placed under house arrest, interned on French territory or murdered. However, lists drawn up by French au [...]
A Holocaust survivor shows the tattoo she received when she arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1943. 'Tell what happened to us': the last death camp survivors
27 January 2025 by AFP
This 27 January 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. In this story, 40 Holocaust survivors, from all parts of the world, speak out and pass on their memories.
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Drawings of Azriel Bibliowicz and Ricardo Silva Romero, two Colombian writers.
14 January 2025 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Writing about crimes you can’t forget Two Colombian writers put language to horrors that could finally see justice this year in their country. The main characters of their novels are close relatives of victims – those for whom the crime continues long after it was com [...]
In Liberia, a statue of Prince Y. Johnson has been erected in front of apartment blocks. A group of young people surround it, some sitting on the pedestal.
16 December 2024 by Aaron Weah
Prince Y. Johnson: The Great Escape  Prince Y. Johnson was one of Liberia’s most feared and charismatic warlords, and yet he had managed to reinvent himself as a born-again Christian preacher and a popular politician in post-war Liberia. His death at the age of 72 le [...]
Portrait of Assumpta Mugiraneza, co-founder and director of the IRIBA Centre for Multimedia Heritage (Kigali, Rwanda).
26 April 2024 by Thierry Cruvellier + Emmanuel Sehene Ruvugiro
Assumpta Mugiraneza: “The policy of memory in Rwanda must be reinvented, renegotiated” Assumpta Mugiraneza, 57, is the co-founder and director of the IRIBA Center for Multimedia Heritage in Kigali. With rare freedom of speech, she recounts the construction of memory after the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994 [...]
A man looks at the names of genocide victims at the Mount Rebero memorial in Kigali.
18 April 2024 by Thierry Cruvellier + Emmanuel Sehene Ruvugiro
At Rebero, political remembrance of the genocide April 13 saw the official closing ceremony for the 30th commemoration of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. The ceremony took place on Mount Rebero, overlooking the capital Kigali -- the same place where the first commemoration took pl [...]
The plaque next to the
15 April 2024 by Anne Van Mourik
Bonaire: a history of slavery, a present of social inequalities Bonaire, a Caribbean island within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, features pristine beaches, vibrant diving spots, and a bustling tourist scene. However, behind its beauty lies a tumultuous history marked by slavery and violence [...]
In memory of the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, 30 years on. Photo: At the end of the commemorations, an elder leaves the Mayunzwe memorial and walks down the hill towards the village.
9 April 2024 by Thierry Cruvellier
Mayunzwe remembers the "Calvary" of the Tutsis On April 7, all Rwandans commemorated 30 years since the 1994 genocide. While an official ceremony was held in the capital Kigali, gatherings were also organized on hillsides across the country. In Mayunzwe, central Rwanda, villag [...]
Justice in Chile for Pinochet's crimes - Photo: Uruguayan demonstrators celebrate Pinochet's arrest in 1998.
16 October 2023 by Cath Collins
Chile’s ‘Pinochet Cases’ at 25: an ongoing sea change It is 25 years since former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London on October 16, 1998. This was a defining moment in the development of international justice. It was also a defining moment for Chile’s justice sy [...]
Herero genocide in Namibia - Propaganda painting showing German soldiers confronting Herero fighters.
18 September 2023 by Anne Van Mourik
A stroll into Germany’s conflicted postcolonial memory Berlin still has a monument commemorating German soldiers who died as “heroes” during the Namibian campaign, which resulted in the genocide of the Herero and Nama about 120 years ago. This tombstone shows how dominant and resistan [...]
Benjamin Ferencz, young prosecutor at the Nuremberg trial
13 April 2023 by Olivier Beauvallet
Benjamin Ferencz: the man who sought peace through law Benjamin Ferencz, the last living Nuremberg Tribunal prosecutor died in the night of April 7 to 8 at the age of 103. French magistrate Olivier Beauvallet, who worked on the French edition of his autobiography, pays tribute with a [...]
Inscription on a portal (in Arabic and French):
9 March 2023 by Olfa Belhassine
Adel Maizi: "Remembrance isn’t just about the past, it helps build the future" Adel Maizi chaired the “memory committee” at Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission from 2014 to 2019. He is a member of the International Council on Archives, where he is an expert on archives and human rights. Maizi explains how [...]
A man walks in front of works of art exhibited at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (Netherlands)
10 January 2023 by Marjolein van Pagee
Colonial racism catches up with Amsterdam Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was sued by Indonesians for using the racist term bersiap in a recent exhibition. It is through court cases that Indonesian rights activists have changed the debate over the Dutch colonial past and exp [...]
2 elderly people demonstrate (holding up pictures of Franco's victims), in the streets of Madrid (Spain)
5 December 2022 by Carles Fernandez-Torne and Pablo Ouziel
Democratising and decolonising Spain: the limits of the new law on memory In Spain, transitional justice revolutions happen in slow motion. On 21 October, a new Democratic Memory Law created a public prosecutor’s office “for human rights and democratic memory”, to investigate past violations during the [...]
Scene from the play
13 October 2022 by Olfa Belhassine
Tunisia: artists take up the torch of remembrance Three recent artistic creations are breaking the silence about Tunisia’s repressive past that has fallen since the Truth and Dignity Commission ended its work three years ago. By working on remembrance, artists are taking up the t [...]
Frederick Flick (owner of the Flick company) stands during his sentencing at the Nuremberg trial in Germany.
12 September 2022 by Clémentine Méténier
In Nuremberg, “we started to judge company executives and managers” Historian and sociologist Guillaume Mouralis, who works on the history of legal practices in post-conflict situations, looks back at the pivotal moment of the Nuremberg Trials, which judged corporate executives at the end of the S [...]
Black and white photo of a hospital bed (operating table type) in the 60-70s.
21 July 2022 by Martine Lind Krebs
Denmark and Greenland confront a traumatic birth control campaign The contraceptive device IUD is at the centre of a crisis in the relationship between Denmark and Greenland. An investigative podcast has revealed that Danish health authorities in the 60s and 70s placed thousands of IUDs in Green [...]
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