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Repairing Historic Injustice: The Return of Indigenous Peoples’ Ancestral Human Remains Through Transitional Justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2024

Alessandro Chechi Open the ORCID record for Alessandro Chechi [Opens in a new window]
Alessandro Chechi*
Affiliation:
Senior lecturer, University of Geneva, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and Université Catholique of Lille
*
Email: alessandro.chechi@unige.ch
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Abstract

This article focuses on the ancestral human remains of Indigenous peoples that were taken by European invaders during the colonial era. It begins by considering the notion of human remains. It then describes the two types of heritage that result from the removal of human remains: the tangible heritage made of the remains exhibited or stored in the museums or universities of former colonial States, and the intangible heritage made of the collective memories of the surviving communities and their descendants about the removal (and the absence) of the stolen remains. The article next examines the role of national and international laws with respect to the restitution of human remains by exploring the concept of transitional justice. This article argues that transitional justice can facilitate the meaningful repatriation of ancestral human remains and hence the healing of past injustice.

Keywords

human remainsIndigenous peoplesinternational cultural heritage lawinternational lawtransitional justicecolonialism
Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , First View , pp. 1 - 20
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Cultural Property Society

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