12/23/2023 0 Comments RemembranceWe remember wars, primarily because there are times when death visits both civilians and those involved in the fighting on a mass scale. We remember the Nazi Holocaust because Jews, Roma, disabled, homosexuals, people of particular political beliefs, and people of Slavic nationality were treated as lesser human beings and experienced violations of almost every one of their human rights. There is no human right directly connected to the act of remembrance, but the type of events which society feels the need to remember are almost always those where the human rights of certain groups of individuals have been comprehensively ignored. And the dagger aimed at the enemy in the end is plunged inwards, perforating the very character of your own society and rupturing precisely what it is supposed to defend. The exceptional becomes the normal and then it becomes too little and then you have to make it more exceptional and more exceptional and more exceptional. Remembrance can help in this way to give a sense of closure to victims, to enable them to move on from the past. Official remembrance can help those who have been affected by a terrible past event to feel that society as a whole recognises their pain, condemns the actions which led to that pain, and provides some reassurance that such actions will not be repeated in the future. Official remembrance is usually organised so that others in society, those who were not directly affected, are informed and publicly acknowledge the suffering of the victims. Victims or those who were affected do not need such artificial reminders: they are generally unable to forget. When remembrance is organised by society or at official level by governments, it is often the case that people are being asked to remember something they did not even experience directly themselves. However, remembrance is more than merely just remembering: remembrance is about making ourselves keeping a memory alive, or at least not allowing ourselves to overlook horrors that have happened in the past. Gross human rights violations, atrocities such as the Holocaust, slave trade, genocide, wars and ethnic cleansing, are not easily forgotten or forgiven by those who were affected. A memorial or record of some fact, person etc.Memory or recollection in relation to a particular thing.We must understand that's where our redemption is.Įstelle Laughlin, Holocaust Survivor What is Remembrance? Status of ratification of major international human rights instruments. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |