On February 20, ICTJ and New York University School of Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) proudly presented the 10th annual Emilio Mignone lecture. For this milestone in the lecture series, ICTJ and CHRGJ welcomed as speaker former UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff.
Close to 200 people attended the public event, held at the law school’s campus in New York City. Among the distinguished guests was Isabel Mignone, the daughter of Emilio Mignone, the renowned Argentine human rights lawyer and early transitional justice architect after whom the lecture series is named. A robust question and answer session followed the lecture, moderated by ICTJ’s Deputy Executive Director Anna Myriam Roccatello.
In his address, titled “The Future of the Past: Reflections on the Current State and Prospects of Transitional Justice,” de Greiff took stock of the field, its accomplishments in the past 30 years and the challenges it faces today and in the years to come. He also reflected on the lasting legacy of the past, particularly for victims of massive human rights abuses, their families, and their societies.
“The future of dealing with the past,” de Greiff said in his opening remarks, “is another way of referring to transitional justice.” “The question remains about the amazing endurance of the past, the fact that is does not go away. That, for example, efforts to bribe people by offering them economic development instead of justice may work for awhile but only that, for awhile,” he continued. “There are things that we cannot reasonably expect our fellow citizens to forget…. In many ways, [not] dealing with the past is not an option.”
De Greiff pointed to the field’s many triumphs in its relatively brief history, especially its normative impact on both human rights discourse and practice. “Transitional justice has unpacked and, in that sense, helped to give richer content to the notion of justice that is relevant in the wake of massive and systematic violations and abuses,” he said. “Transitional justice has helped to entrench rights to justice, truth, and reparations that 30 years ago were largely fictions for the overwhelming majority of victims of human rights violations and abuses. And it has done it not only doctrinally but also importantly practically.”
The Special Rapporteur, however, insisted on modesty in his overall assessment of the field and its capacity for transformative change. “As it has been said of peace agreements, I think transitional justice is not meant to take people to heaven; it is meant to take people out of hell,” he said. “Transitional justice, I want to insist, is not is a universal policy tool, a cure for all sorts of maladies. It is a small, albeit important, part of a broader transformative agenda.”
