Justice Beyond Time, Place, and Law
Place: Onzième Lieu, Paris
Programme
14:00-15:30 – Session 1
Forms of and Fora for Accountability
Contributors: Mohammed Bassiki, Garance le Caisne, Mazen Darwish
Chaired by Cecile Boex
During the revolution and war in Syria, new methods and digital tools led to some groundbreaking open-source investigations. But where do such tools and methods sit with other tried and tested methods, such as, but not limited to, gathering leaked state documents (e.g. the Caesar Files), or eye-witness testimonies by survivors and bystanders? Building on the success of journalistic investigations, lawyers and civil society activists have similarly sought to harness the potential of digital methods and forms of evidence. What are the possibilities and limitations for using these same methods, tools, and technologies to hold perpetrators to account in international tribunals, or national courts claiming universal jurisdiction? Do different tools and methods favour one kind of accountability over another? Taking the recent arrest warrant against Bashar al-Assad issued by a French court, this session will consider the evidence landscape that led to the French prosecutor releasing the arrest warrant.
16.00-17.30 – Session 2
Mediated Histories and Memories of Revolution and War
Contributors: Rami Farah, Lyana Salih, Rania Stephan
Chaired by Emma Aubin-Boltanski
In recent years, filmmakers and civil society activists have returned to the scene of the Syrian revolution and war to re-mediate their footage and memory. In the process, they are examining their experiences of the past mediated by the footage and memory that survive in the present. This session will examine the kinds of critical questions those mediated memories and histories pose to us in the present, such as: What are the ethics of handling images of past violence in the present? Is it possible to reconcile a potential contradiction that this footage can both help critically take stock of the past and reactivate inequalities and traumas in the present? What political role, if any, can the construction of documentary narratives of historical events play in the aftermath of revolution and war? Is the critical task today to salvage stories and memories from technical and psychic oblivion in the wake of an overwhelming catastrophe? Is the act of narrative documentary filmmaking about the Syrian revolution and war premised on a consoling, yet unfounded, faith in the judgment of history?
Organised by Views of Violence: Images as Documentary, Evidentiary and Affective. We are grateful to the Independent Research Fund Denmark for funding the project through the Sapere Aude scheme.