Description
Human Rights and Art: Understanding Violations and Facilitating Change
In the aftermath of violence and conflict how is it possible to understand human rights violations and engage the experiences of victims and survivors? Victims and survivors often do not speak up for fear of reprisal and/or the stigma associated with violence and abuse, legal and bureaucratic systems can fail, and crimes can go unacknowledged and unpunished. As a result, there is often difficulty in eliciting and supporting experiences and narratives around human rights violations, both at local and global levels.
Despite the growing scholarship on art and aesthetics in international studies, the creative dimensions of human rights remain under-researched. This panel seeks to fill that gap by asking what can art offer in facilitating an understanding of human rights violations? How do arts-based interventions have the potential to elucidate rights violations, empower individuals and groups, and advocate for and effect change across different political levels?
In addressing these questions, the panel seeks to explore how art can contribute both to the individual expression of human rights violations and the formulation of redress, and the public depiction of harm to give visibility to the impact of violations and open up spaces to develop societal and policy change; in order to contribute to a transformed and transformative global society. Drawing on transdisciplinary research across international studies, art theory, and law, the panel will explore a range of case studies related to different art forms and initiatives around the globe.
Convenor: Eliza Garnsey, University of Cambridge, esg35@cam.ac.uk
Chair: Professor Andrea Durbach, University of New South Wales, Australia (time zone Sydney, AEST)
Panellists (incl. affiliations and time zones):
• Tatiana Fernández-Maya, University of New South Wales, Australia (time zone AEST)
• Eliza Garnsey, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (based in Australia, time zone AEST)
• Caitlin Hamilton, University of Sydney, Australia (time zone AEST)
• Tania Islas Weinstein, McGill University, Canada (time zone EST)
• Konstantinos Pittas, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (based in Greece, time zone EET)
