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“No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been”
-Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, 314
The notion of individual justice has been highly debated on many fronts including legal arguments about how it should be executed, social critiques of the purpose it should serve, personal questions about its ability to offer closure, and general considerations of its future implications. Imagine now the effectiveness of justice in a realm that is not localized and where the perpetrator is a highly organized system where those who organize the killing rarely have any blood on their hands, while those who spill blood are often very low on the hierarchical ladder. The laws established to handle individual perpetrators and conventional criminal cases are not adequate to respond to crimes against humanity How then can one hold people accountable? What laws, systems are in place for the world to pursue justice for crimes committed against humanity?
I have previously taught courses entitled Human Behavior that focused on questions of individual responsibility and action in the face of injustice. My students and I spent several months attempting to define characteristics of victims, perpetrators, bystanders and upstanders and then apply these labels to actors in history, specifically in the events of the holocaust. These terms became more controversial as we delved deeper into the bureaucratic and “scientific logic” of the Nazi totalitarian regime that presented mass murder as a legitimate and necessary undertaking. This coming semester I am looking to end genocide. Or at least spark ideas that will help students to evaluate past forms of responses not only to genocide, but also to mass violent discriminations of the past and present. Although the class will begin by looking at justice through the courts and judicial processes, it will also evaluate justice that has been pursued through truth seeking, reparations, reconciliation, cultural responses, education, as well as political and legal reforms on both the national and international levels.
The course will begin by considering the responses of the world to the crimes committed in WWII, through the Nuremberg Trials (1945-46), the United Nations Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Then we will turn to the responses of South Africa post-Apartheid through the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (1995), as well as the creation of the Gacaca (2001), the localized community tribunal courts in Rwanda, and the Demobilization and Reintegration Commission (1997-2001) to help illustrate the different understandings, definitions and pursuits of justice. In an effort to broaden conceptions of crimes against humanity and instances of violent mass discrimination, students will have an opportunity to engage in independent research about other critical situations of statelessness and refugees or the plight of women’s issues around the world. Time permitting, this course will also have an opportunity to study and questions the effectiveness of the International Criminal Court established through the Rome Statute in 2002. The course will culminate with individually produced student papers that engage the questions of justice critically utilizing the events, people, systems and documents studied in class to evaluate best practices and rational. (Was justice served?)
In this class students will think about the responsibility of an individual in society which is at the essence of global citizenship, and while they try to devise solutions to some of the world’s most daunting problems like violence and discrimination, I want to emphasize the process of politics in affecting change. Although much of the course content will be focused on events that take place outside of my students’ world, both in time and space, it is essential that they also understand that they too can make a positive difference. Although much has been accomplished and discussed since the horrors of WWII came to light, genocide continues to this day and it is up to ordinary people to use the legal and political tools to prosecute perpetrators and prevent future atrocities.
An enduring understanding that students must walk away with by the end of the class is that citizens cannot expect their governments to do the right thing, and therefore must demonstrate that it is within the higher interest of the country to prevent, stop and punish genocide because it is in the interest of civilization to mobilize against inhumanity. Through a study of laws and language that currently exists to allow us to talk about genocide and justice, students will learn the tools that individuals and groups can use to fight hatred and strengthen democracy in their own communities.
Recommended Supplemental Reading for students:
The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal
Night by Elie Wiesel
Somehow Tenderness Survives by Hazel Rochman
Out of Bounds: Seven Stories of Conflict and Hoope by Naidoo
Kaffir Boy: The True Story Of A Black Youth's Coming Of Age In Apartheid South Africa by Mark Mathabane
Resources:
Books:
Arendt, Hannah, “Origins of Totalitarianism”
Arendt, Hannah, “Eichmann in Jerusalem: The Banality of Evil”
Arendt, Hannah, “The Human Condition”
Samantha Power, “A Problem from Hell: America in the Time of Genocide”
Martha Minow, “Between Forgiveness and Vengeance: Facing History and Genocide”
Articles:
H. Arendt, “Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship”; in: H. Arendt, Responsibility and Judgment
H. Arendt, “Organized Guilt and Collective Responsibility”, in: H. Arendt, Essays in Understanding
Films:
A Long Night’s Journey into Day
Amandla! Music in South Africa
Confessions of a Hitler Youth
Facing Evil with Bill Moyers
Facing the Truth (SA)
Gacaca
Justice at Dachau
Nuremberg Remembered
The Nuremberg Trials (PBS)
War Don Don
Cry Freedom
Websites:
Yale Genocide Studies Center
http://www.yale.edu/gsp/index.html
International Center for Transitional Justice
Open Society Foundations
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