PUBLICATION DATE: 16 May 2015
On 15-16 of May 2015 in Derry, Northern Ireland, a conference was held entitled Apologies for Historical Wrongs: When, How, Why? It examined the role of apologies in the settlement of historical conflicts and reconciliation between the parties involved. The conference was organised by a group of scholars led by Dr Arman Sarvarian, international lawyer at Surrey University, and consisting of sociologist Dr Máire Braniff (University of Ulster) and historians Dr Bryony Onciul (University of Exeter) and Dr Anyaa Anim-Addo (University of Leeds). It was organised in collaboration with Mediate Northern Ireland and financed by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under its Care for the Future programme.
Workshop participants were representatives of NGOs and campaign groups specialising in the five project case studies.
These case studies are:
- Pogroms on Christian minorities (Armenians, Assyrians, Pontic Greeks) in the Ottoman Empire;
- Slavery in the Caribbean in the British Empire;
- Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland in 1972 when soldiers of the British Army killed campaigners for prisoners’ rights (Bloody Sunday took place in Derry, the host city of the conference);
- Sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergymen in the Republic of Ireland; and
- Forced removal of aboriginal children from their families in Canada.
Participants of the conference examined and compared their experiences in the above-mentioned case studies. The responsible governments have already issued official apologies in the last three cases. The participants examined the apologies through the following angles:
- When is an apology made, by whom is it issued and to whom it is addressed, by what processes are apologies mandated (political, legal, diplomatic);
- How are official narratives changed by an apology;
- Following an apology, how does the conduct of the state affect the sincerity of an apology.
Participants took part in a tour of Derry City guided by its citizens who explained the history of the city, particularly in the context of the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1960s – 1998). They showed districts divided between the communities of different political orientations and explained the developments following the 1998 treaty.
Following the conference, the project team will transcribe and upload the discussions on the project website – www.apologiesproject.co.uk – for the use of researchers and the general public. In addition, the team will continue to examine the meaning of apologies in order to present useful recommendations to governmental and non-governmental organisations through a multidisciplinary journal article and through engagement with the media.