Victims, Survivors or
Political Pawns?
Hearing the Voices: Sharing
Perspectives in the
Victim/Survivor Sector
Katy Radford
Sara Templer
Hearing the Voices: Sharing Perspectives in
the Victim/Survivor Sector
• Commission: Northern Ireland Community
Relations Council (CRC)
• Aims:
• Capture voices and experience
• Consider challenges and opportunities
• Explore commemoration, memorialisation,
trans-generational issues
• Develop recs. for Govt., the Commissioner and
the Sector
(http://www.community-relations.org.uk/filestore/documents/crcvoices-report.pdf)
"Hearing the Voices: Sharing Perspectives in
the Victim/Survivor Sector"
- Victims, Survivors or Political Pawns?
Five key themes
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Language
Relationships and Trust Building
Networks of Support
Trans-generational Issues
Material Memorialisation
"Hearing the Voices: Sharing Perspectives in
the Victim/Survivor Sector"
- Victims, Survivors or Political Pawns?
Focus of Presentation
1. Methodology
•
KEY OBSERVATION: Research methodologies need
to be tailored to suit the needs and circumstances
of individuals in this sector.
2. Theatre of Change
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Language
Commemoration in the changing context
Symbolic and Material Memorialisation
"Hearing the Voices: Sharing Perspectives in
the Victim/Survivor Sector"
- Victims, Survivors or Political Pawns?
1. Methodology
Relationships, Trust building and networks of
support
• ‘Open Heart’ (relationships and community
and personal development)
• Ethics (use of language, encourage
dialogue)
• Action-based (common ground, direction,
recommendations)
"Hearing the Voices: Sharing Perspectives in
the Victim/Survivor Sector"
- Victims, Survivors or Political Pawns?
2. The theatre of change
Language, Commemoration and Transgenerational issues
• Changing policy and governance context
• Role players:
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OFMDFM
Victims’ Commissioners
Statutory Service Providers
Community-based Victim/Survivor Support Groups
Families, Young People
• ‘Remembering’ as:
– Commemorative sites and activities
– Service delivery, listening, acknowledgement
"Hearing the Voices: Sharing Perspectives in
the Victim/Survivor Sector"
- Victims, Survivors or Political Pawns?
Language – Definitions and key words
• Victims
• Typology
• Victims of paramilitary, sectarian and anti-state action
• Victims of actions taken by the state
• People who have ‘disappeared’ or been disenfranchised,
exiled, killed by ‘their own’ or otherwise vanished
• People who have been traumatised or suffered as a
result of witnessing, incorporating, embedding violence
in their psyche.
• Perpetrators
• Combatants, Paramilitaries, Sate Actors, Armed Groups
• Conflict/War/Troubles
• Survivors
• Other Terms and Concepts
"Hearing the Voices: Sharing Perspectives in
the Victim/Survivor Sector"
- Victims, Survivors or Political Pawns?
Commemoration and Memorialisation (1)
• The purpose of remembrance
– “To hold the sacrifices made by loved ones in honour and
respect.”
– “To ensure that the sacrifices and suffering of the past are not
forgotten.”
– “To communicate the message that “never again” should such
loss be suffered.”
– “To ensure that the stories and experiences of the past are not
lost to our own and future generations: to keep the stories
alive.”
– In the case of memorials: “to provide a visual focus and in some
cases a beautiful physical place for remembrance and peaceful
reflection.
"Hearing the Voices: Sharing Perspectives in
the Victim/Survivor Sector“
- Victims, Survivors or Political Pawns?
Commemoration and Memorialisation (2)
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Private and public commemoration
The role of education
‘Sharing’ and commemoration
Shared memorials
"Hearing the Voices: Sharing Perspectives in
the Victim/Survivor Sector" - Victims,
Survivors or Political Pawns?
Recommendations made in relation to
‘remembering’
1. For Government
2. For Commissioner(s)
3. For Community Groups
"Hearing the Voices: Sharing Perspectives in
the Victim/Survivor Sector"
- Victims, Survivors or Political Pawns?
Victims, Survivors and Political Power
• In international experience
• In the local context
Memory can be “manipulated to serve
political power, and the ability to
manipulate memory is, in itself, a
measure of that power”.
- Hirsch, Genocide and the Politics of Memory (1995:22)
"Hearing the Voices: Sharing Perspectives in
the Victim/Survivor Sector"
- Victims, Survivors or Political Pawns?
Contact details
Dr Katy Radford
[email protected]
078 08586842
Institute for Conflict Research
2, Duncairn Gardens
Belfast BT15 2GG
028 90742682
Sara Templer
[email protected]
078 66842122
"Hearing the Voices: Sharing Perspectives in
the Victim/Survivor Sector"
- Victims, Survivors or Political Pawns?