HISTORICAL MEMORY AS A COLLECTIVE RIGHT AND THE SOCIAL HARM CAUSED BY ITS ALTERATION OR DENIAL
The memory of peoples constitutes a fundamental pillar for their cohesion, identity and development. This symposium proposes to address historical memory not only as an exercise in reconstructing the past, but as an enforceable collective right, whose alteration, manipulation or systematic denial generates significant social harm. Understanding the magnitude of this violation requires a multidisciplinary analysis bringing together history, law in general, human rights, sociology and zemiology.
Although international pronouncements and the jurisprudence of bodies such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) have set valuable precedents regarding the right to truth and memory, this symposium takes them up not as an end in themselves, but as a point of convergence. From this framework, the symposium seeks to debate how the loss, distortion or elimination of historical narratives transcends the strictly normative to materialize as ongoing social harm, fostering inequalities and weakening the social fabric across the American continent.
Another perspective considers historical memory as a social resource that strengthens the social fabric and perpetuates both the material and intangible assets that help communities in the present and lay the foundations for the collective well-being of future generations.
We therefore invite those interested in participating in this symposium to present papers that help shed light on the following questions and related topics:
1.- In what ways does the alteration or dilution of historical memory materially constitute measurable and observable social harm?
2.- How do history, zemiology and sociology converge to reveal the consequences of violating the collective right to memory?
3.- What role do international human rights standards (such as those of the IACtHR) play in recognizing and enforcing historical memory against state policies?
4.- What multidisciplinary mechanisms allow communities to resist historical erasure and demand reparation for social harm?
5.- What legal and historical challenges persist in the Americas to ensure that memory functions as a guarantee of non-repetition?
6.- In what ways does historical memory strengthen the social fabric and perpetuate the material and intangible assets of a group?
7.- What multidisciplinary strategies (history, law, sociology, zemiology, anthropology) help keep historical memory alive as a dynamic process of collective belonging?
