THE PAST: Justice and Care for Human Remains

THE PAST: Justice and Care for Human Remains

Promoting the principle of Justice means considering and acknowledging certain structurally unjust practices in the past. But taking them into account is not enough; we must also deal with their problematic legacy in a way that is capable, if not of healing the pain and damage caused in the past, of restoring a balance in the present. Science owes a great deal to individual and collective creativity but many scientific collections were also built up from colonial practices.  What are the consequences across time and space when these collections contain human remains that belonged to other societies?  What sort of care do human remains deserve? How do we pass them on to future generations? And how do we deal with the colonial past of European countries? Can the repatriation or return of such remains help to build a restorative justice and to write a new common story with the Southern countries? The "human remains" session will address these questions.

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NEC Forum 2024