The documentation of atrocities is far more than a mere collection of evidence. It is also the documentation of individual trauma, of vulnerability and of cruelty, and it takes place in high-stress, high-risk situations. Those who participate in the documentation process are not only in charge of securing a path to justice but also respecting the victims’ dignity and wishes.
To ensure both, documenting organisations are usually guided by rules and principles for their work.
- But what does an ethical documentation of mass atrocities look like?
- How can the process put the victims at its centre?
- When effective documentation and the victims’ wishes find themselves at tension, how can they be weighed against each other?
- And what happens when clear-cut guidelines no longer fit the grey areas of field work?
For this event, we are happy to work with Peace Brigades International’s (PBI) Kenya team and the Right to Life Committee of the Social Justice Centre Movement. The Right to Life Committee documents cases of excessive use of force by the police and are accompanied by the local PBI team.
This is an interactive event that invites the audience to reflect on fictitious scenarios, inspired by true cases, in the documentation process and the challenges and dilemmas they entail.
