Irish Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone PhD STM 鈥�86 will deliver keynote remarks on campus November 1 to open a two-day conference, 鈥淭owards Transitional Justice: Recognition, Truth-telling, and Institutional Abuse in Ireland.鈥�
The conference, organized by Associate Professor of English and Irish Studies James Smith, will bring together scholars in the international field of transitional justice along with survivors, people affected by adoption, and activists to focus on the Irish government鈥檚 response to historical abuse in the Magdalen laundries, county homes, mother and baby homes, and child residential institutions, and in the nation鈥檚 secret, forced-adoption system. Discussions will scrutinize the Irish state鈥檚 past and present treatment of women and children, and the state鈥檚 use of power in relation to people who are in vulnerable situations.
(Read James Smith's op-ed, 'Commission of Investigations Act inhibits truth-telling about past and present' in the and listen to an interview on . Additional event coveraege: , , , , , , ,)
Zappone is currently overseeing an Irish State Commission of Investigation examining multiple concerns related to the institutional care of unmarried mothers and their babies from 1922-1998, including the discovery of a mass grave of child and infant remains on the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam.
鈥淭owards Transitional Justice鈥� will discuss the key findings of the recently published CLANN Report, including the recommendations to provide a statutory right to information for adopted people and others affected by historical abuse, and the creation of a national repository of institutional records.
James Smith (Lee Pellegrini)
The conference, which will also examine whether truth-telling can take place in the absence of access to records, will feature a panel of abuse survivors on Nov. 2, from noon-2 p.m. in Gasson 100.
鈥淚n planning this event, we were aware that holding it on the Boston College campus offers a neutral space for conversations that are still difficult to hold back in Ireland,鈥� said Smith, an expert in the field and author of聽Ireland鈥檚 Magdalen Laundries and the Nation鈥檚 Architecture of Containment. 鈥淪ince 1999, the Irish state has offered apologies and financial payments for some historical abuses, but it has failed to establish truth-telling mechanisms, including the provision of access to records and archives. Without truth-telling, there can be no guarantee of non-recurrence.鈥�
Transitional justice addresses systemic human rights abuses through both judicial and non-judicial measures, including truth commissions, reparations programs, criminal prosecutions and a range of institutional reforms.
Speaking in 2017, Zappone said, 鈥淭ransitional justice puts survivors and victims at the heart of the process. It commits to pursuing justice through truth. It aims to achieve not only individual justice, but a wider societal transition from more repressive times, to move from one era to another. Taking a transitional justice approach means that we will find out and record the truth, ensure accountability, make reparation, undertake institutional reform, and achieve reconciliation.鈥� 聽
Conference speakers will describe how different countries have dealt with traumatic histories related to institutional provision, including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and what Ireland can learn from 鈥榯ransitional justice鈥� responses.
Additional speakers include Felice Gaer, of the UN Committee Against Torture, Ruth Rubio Mar铆n, of the European University Institute, Fionnuala N铆 Aolain, of the University of Minnesota, Shurlee Swain, of Australian Catholic University, Colm O鈥橤orman, of Amnesty International-Ireland, Patricia Lundy, of Ulster University, Emilie Pine, of University College Dublin, and James Gallen, of Dublin City University, among others.
For the full conference agenda and other information, visit The Institute for the Liberal Arts聽events page.听
鈥擴niversity Communications | October 31, 2018