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Abstract
This article is probably the first work to explore systematically the commemoration of rescuers from a human rights and transitional justice perspective. It argues that the documentation and commemoration of acts of rescuers during mass atrocities should become an integral part of the human rights response to such atrocities. These undertakings could make important contributions to the goals of post-conflict reconstruction, especially in relation to conflict-transformation between communities, and to confronting the role of passive bystanders. The article first develops the concept of "rescues for humanity" to elucidate the significance of rescues in the transitional justice framework and ,after reviewing existing initiatives, it moves on to identify the potential benefits of such undertakings, as well as the challenges and risks involved in the documentation of rescues.
I. Introduction
This article, probably the first work to explore systematically the commemoration of rescuers from a human rights and transitional justice perspective, argues that the documentation of rescues during mass atrocities should become an integral part of the human rights response to such atrocities. The international human rights community's set of conceptual and practical tools used in the aftermath of genocides and conflicts-often referred to as the "transitional justice toolkit," and including measures such as prosecutions, truth commissions, and reparations programs-has thus far neglected the potential inherent in the commemoration of rescues for contributing to the goals of post-conflict reconstruction. Recording and disseminating rescue narratives can assist in conflict-transformation between communities and in confronting the role of passive bystanders. Given the centrality of these goals to transitional justice, rescuers deserve sustained attention from transitional justice scholars and practitioners.
The following section explains how rescues fit into a transitional justice framework. It develops the concept of "rescues for humanity" to denote the special features of mass-atrocity rescue, a mirror image of crimes against humanity. The section also suggests several factors that have so far delayed the incorporation of the issue into the transitional justice field. The third section maps existing initiatives honoring rescuers in Israel, Rwanda, and Bosnia. Section IV identifies and analyzes the potential gains from such projects. The first of these is rescue-memory as reconciliation: the contributions to conflict-transformation between communities. The second is rescue-memory as denunciation: the encouragement of societal reckoning with the role...