Conflicts, abuses, repression, and human rights violations always leave a bitter taste when proper mourning to achieve personal or communal healing is cutoff by indifference, and politics of amnesia.
International law clearly recognises the right of victims and survivors to know about the circumstances of serious violations of their human rights and about who was responsible for their suffering.
Whilst international legal debates continue to develop the concept of a society’s right to the truth, the Lebanese State has championed in the politics of amnesia, disregarding more than fifteen years of civil war. It sought to transform on the one hand the war-affected urban architecture, erasing the crimes of the warlords, and hiding the impact of the war, while on the other hand, it denies its citizens the right to remember, to mourn, as to better forget.
Truth seeking initiatives can play a powerful role in documenting and acknowledging human rights violation, it provides healthy grounds for society to reconcile with its history, as to be able to build a better future. Moreover, memory initiatives also contribute to build a public understanding of past conflicts, abuses and wars, their reasons, and causes, as to be able to avoid these tragic events in the future.
This issue of Tatimma highlights initiatives seeking to advance the right to truth as well as memory initiatives in Lebanon.