Whose Reparation Claims Count? Gender, History and (In)justice

Abstract.

 The recognition and compensation of historic injustices is part and parcel of a politics of recognition and of socio-legal attempts at reconciliation and redemption. The notion of ‘restorative justice’ has recently gained political salience by invoking national governments to face and deal with historical injustice and often judicial recourse is used as a means to redress, through legislation, the legacy of historical wrongs in which democratic nation states have been implicated. At least it would appear so when considering the proliferation of apologies and reparations issued in recent years on behalf of public bodies. Yet, despite a proliferation of apologies, memorials, commemorations and other means of dealing with past practices, some claims for reparation regarding historic wrongs remain unaddressed, unsuccessful or unheard. This article analyses discourses of eugenic legacies and restorative justice claims using a gender-sensitive perspective and examines reparation claims in relation to coerced sterilisations comparing Switzerland with Sweden and several states in the United States.

Notes

1 Fraser Nancy Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalized World Columbia University Press New York 2009; see also Fraser Nancy and Honneth Axel Redistribution or Recognition? A Political-Philosophical Exchange Verso London 2003.

2 Marrus Michael ‘Official Apologies and the Quest for Historical Justice’ (2007) 6 Journal of Human Rights 75; See also Barkan Elazar and Karn Alexander Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation Stanford University Press Stanford 2006; Karn Alexander Amending the Past: Europe’s Holocaust Commissions and the Right to History Wisconsin University Press Wisconsin 2015.

3 Stern Alexandra Minna ‘Eugenics and Historical Memory in America’ (2005) 3 History Compass 1.

4 The term established democracies is used here to denote nation states which have a history of democracy reaching back to modernity and it is used in contrast to the idea of post-conflict democracies.

5 Rubio-Marín Ruth (ed.) The Gender of Reparations: Unsettling Sexual Hierarchies while Redressing Human Rights Violations Cambridge University Press Cambridge 2009. See also Rubio-Marín Ruth and de Greiff Pablo ‘Women and Reparations’ (2007) 1 International Journal of Transitional Justice 318.

6 Foucault Michel The Will to Knowledge: The History of Sexuality Vol I trans R Hurley Penguin London 1978 [1976] p 139.

7 McCarthy Thomas ‘Coming to Terms with our Past: On the Morality and Politics of Reparations for Slavery’ (2004) 32 Political Theory 750.

8 Although sterilisations and the removal of children were qualitatively different in character, with one being a medical technology and the other not, they were both informed by eugenic thinking. Eugenics comprised both negative and positive eugenics, that is, both the thinking and the practices which aimed to prevent unworthy offspring through interventions as well as the thinking and measures which were directive or advisory in character and which aimed at educating the worthy sections of society into appropriate reproductive behaviour.

9 Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparations for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, UN Human Rights Committee, 56th meeting, Ch XI, E/CN.4/2005.L.10/Add.11 [BPG].

10 Visker Rudi Michel Foucault: Genealogy as Critique Verso London 1995.

11 ‘Europe’s Taboo, Sterilization, Out of the Shadows’, Chicago Tribunal 28 August 1997 <http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-08-28/news/9708280294_1_sterilisations-handicapped-nazi-dictator-adolf-hitler> Accessed 12 April 2016.

12 Weindling Paul ‘International Eugenics: Swedish Sterilisation in Context’ (1999) 24 Scandinavian Journal of History 179.

13 Kulawik Teresa ‘The Nordic Model of the Welfare State and the Trouble with a Critical Perspective’ Keynote lecture presented at the International Conference in Nordic Studies Norden at the Crossroads Helsinki 2002.

14 Runcis Maija ‘Striden om historien’ in Aronsson Peter (ed.) Makten över minnet: historiekultur i förändring Studentlitteratur Lund 2000; see also Tydén Mattias ‘The Scandinavian States: Reformed Eugenics Applied’ in Bashford Alison and Levine Philippa (eds) The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics Oxford University Press Oxford 2010.

15 Leimgruber Walter Meier Thomas and Sablonier Roger Das Hilfswerk für die Kinder der Landstrasse. Historische Studie aufgrund der Akten der Stiftung Pro Juventute im Schweizerischen Bundesarchiv Bundesarchiv Dossier 9 Bern 1998.

16 As above at 1.

17 As above.

18 See, for instance, Heller Geneviève, Jeanmonod Gilles and Gasser Jacques Rejetées, rebelles, mal adaptées: Débats sur l'eugénisme — Pratiques de la stérilisation non volontaire en Suisse romande au XXe siècle Georg Editeur Geneva 2002; Huonker Thomas Diagnose: ‘Moralisch Defekt’. Kastration, Sterilisation und Rassenhygiene im Dienst der Schweizer Sozialpolitik und Psychiatrie 1890–1970 Orell Füssli Verlag Zurich 2003; Keller Christoph Der Schädelvermesser. Otto Schlaginhaufen — Anthropologe und Rassenhygieniker. Eine biographische Reportage Limmat Verlag Zürich 1995; Mottier Véronique ‘Narratives of National Identity: Sexuality, Race, and the Swiss “Dream of Order”’ (2000) 26 Swiss Journal of Sociology 533; Wecker Regina ‘Eugenik — individueller Ausschluss und nationaler Konsens’ in Guex Sebastien et al (eds) Krisen und Stabilisierung: Die Schweiz in der Zwischenkriegszeit Chronos Zürich 1998 p 165.

19 <https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/de/home/gesellschaft/gesetzgebung/archiv/sterilisation.html> Accessed 12 April 2016.

20 Stern above note 3 at 3.

21 Bauman Zygmunt Modernity and the Holocaust Polity Press Cambridge 1989; Mottier above note 18.

22 Gilroy Paul The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness Harvard University Press Cambridge 1995; Kevles Daniel In the Name of Eugenics University of California Press Berkeley 1995.

23 Missa Jean-Noël ‘“L’individu n'est rien, l’espèce est tout”: analyse historique de l’évolution de la question de l’eugénisme au XXe siècle’ in Missa J-N (ed.) De l’eugénisme d'Etat à l’eugénisme privé de Boeck Bruxelles 1999 p 9; Porter Dorothy ‘Eugenics and the Sterilisation Debate in Sweden before World War II’ (1999) 24 Scandinavian Journal of History 145.

24 Gerodetti Natalia ‘From Science to Social Technology: Eugenics and Politics in the Twentieth Century’ (2006) 13 Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society 59.

25 Enligt lagen (1934: 171) and Enligt Lagen (1941: 282) <https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/lag-1999332-om-ersattning-till-steriliserade-i_sfs-1999-332> Accessed 12 April 2016. See also Broberg Gunnar and Tyden Mattias ‘Eugenics in Sweden: Efficient Care’ in Broberg Gunnar and Roll-Hansen Nils (eds) Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilisation Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland Michigan State Press Michigan 1996 p 77.

26 For Vaud, see <http://www.publidoc.vd.ch/guestDownload/direct/Texte%20adopté%20par%20CE.pdf?path=/Company%20Home/VD/CHANC/SIEL/antilope/objet/CEGC/Rapport%20du%20CE/2013/09/439671_269_Texte%20adopté%20par%20CE_20151210_1220528.pdf. For Bern, see http://www.amtsdruckschriften.bar.admin.ch/viewOrigDoc.do?id=10031259> Accessed 12 April 2016.

27 Medical personnel were reportedly glad about the absence of a legislative framework as it allowed them to conduct interventions without formal applications to health boards and only with the consent of the person and/or guardian which they felt was easy enough to obtain. For a full discussion see Gerodetti Natalia ‘“Unter besonders günstigen Verhältnissen arbeiten” Eugenic Thinking and Practice in Switzerland’ in Westermann Stephanie Kühl Richard and Gross Dominik (eds) Medizin im Dienste der Erbgesundheit: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Eugenik und Rassenhygiene Literatur Verlag Berlin 2009 p 79.

28 Visker above note 10.

29 As above.

30 See, for instance, Thompson Janna Taking Responsibility for the Past: Reparation and Historical Injustice Polity Cambridge 2002; Torpey John (ed.) Politics and the Past: On Repairing Historical Injustices Rowman and Littlefield Lanham 2003.

31 McCarthy above note 7.

32 As above at 760.

33 Thompson above note 30.

34 O’Rourke Catherine Gender Politics in Transitional Justice Routledge London 2013; Painter Genevieve Renard ‘Thinking Past Rights: Towards Feminist Theories of Reparations’ (2012) 30 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 1.

35 Rubio-Marín above note 5 at 4.

36 Rubio-Marín Ruth ‘Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual and Reproductive Violence: A Decalogue’ (2012) 69 William & Mary Journal of Women & Law at 19.

37 Rubio-Marín above note 5; Urban Walker Margaret ‘Gender and Violence in Focus: A Background for Gender Justice in Reparations’ in Rubio-Marín Ruth (ed.) The Gender of Reparations: Unsettling Sexual Hierarchies while Redressing Human Rights Violations Cambridge University Press Cambridge 2009 p 22.

38 O’Rourke above note 34 at 37.

39 As above.

40 Rubio-Marín above note 36.

41 Goffman Erving Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity Penguin Harmondsworth 1990 [1963] p 3.

42 Rubio-Marín above note 5 at 28 and 29.

43 Urban Walker Margaret ‘Gender and Violence in Focus: A Background for Gender Justice in Reparations’ in Rubio-Marín Ruth (ed.) The Gender of Reparations: Unsettling Sexual Hierarchies while Redressing Human Rights Violations Cambridge University Press Cambridge 2009 p 31.

44 The reproductive violations involved in coerced sterilisations have been shown to have been linked to other practices such as granting abortions upon consenting to sterilisations, or the receipt of a marriage licence only upon agreeing to a sterilisation.

45 See, for instance, Smart Carol Regulating Womanhood: Historical Essays on Marriage, Motherhood and Sexuality Routledge London 1992.

46 See also Nussbaum Martha Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, Shame and the Law Princeton University Press Princeton 2004.

47 Stern above note 3 at 211. ‘Virginia Apologises for Eugenics Policy’ BBC News 3 May 2002; ‘Apology for Oregon Forces Sterilizations’ Los Angeles Times 3 December 2002; North Carolina: <https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/NC/NC.html> Accessed 12 April 2016; ‘California: State Issues Apology for Policy of Sterilization’ Los Angeles Times 12 March 2003.

48 Although notably the apology was received by victims only in the first three states, not California.

49 The appropriations bill can be found at <http://www.ncleg.net/sessions/2013/bills/senate/pdf/s402v7.pdf> Accessed 12 April 2016.

50 <http://www.dbhds.virginia.gov/individuals-and-families/sterilisation-compensation> Accessed 12 April 2016.

51 Population Research Institute <https://www.pop.org/content/the-knife-in-the-closet-127#sthash.Fnprbx8E.dpuf> Accessed 12 April 2016.

52 Regeringens Skrivelse Redogörelse för steriliseringsfrågan i Sverige åren 1935-1975 och regeringens åtgärder 2000 01/73: 1–27.

53 For a thorough analysis of his articles and the ensuing debate, see Kroon Åsa ‘Debattens dynamik: hur budskap och betydelser förvandlas i mediedebatter’ (2001) 227 Linköping studies in arts and science Linköping Tema University 0282–9800 133.

54 Regeringens above note 52.

55 Many were performed during abortions, as mandatory before release from prisons or psychiatric wards, to qualify for public assistance or to avoid losing custody of children (see Regeringens as above). Runcis argued that the original motivation to cleanse society of the feebleminded broadened into a willingness to sterilise for socially or morally offensive behaviour. Local committees, with significant variations in implementation of the laws, sometimes chose to recommend or impose sterilisation of gypsies, women who could not provide for numerous children, or sexually promiscuous women; see Runcis Maja Steriliseringar i folkshemmet [Sterilisation in the Swedish Welfare State] Ordfront Stockholm 1998.

56 Regeringens above note 52 at 13.

57 Runcis above note 55; Regeringens above note 52.

58 Johannson Karin ‘1600 tvångssteriliserade har fått skadestånd’ Sydsvenskan April 2005 <http://www.sydsvenskan.se/sverige/1-600-tvangssteriliserade-har-fatt-skadestand/> Accessed 12 April 2016.

59 ‘Sweden Pays Sterilisation Victims’ Deseret News 1 November 1999 p 6.

60 Koch Lene ‘On Ethics, Scientist, and Democracy: Writing the History of Eugenic Sterilisation’ in Doel Ronald and Söderqvist Thomas (eds) A Historiography of Contemporary Science, Technology and Medicine: Writing Recent Science Routledge London 2006 p 81 at 84.

61 ‘Sterilization Victims Ought to be Paid: Panel’ The Daily Gazette (New York) 27 January 1999 p 15.

62 In both Sweden and Switzerland political engagement was launched within parliament though in Sweden much more sharply against the backdrop of the international media scandal. In Switzerland, there was no parallel media attention.

63 Margrith von Felten submitted the parliamentary initiative in 1999 (99.451) which the legal commission of the National Council (RK-N) decided to follow and draft a law for compensation in 2000. This draft was submitted to a consultation process in during 2002 and resulted in a two-part law: the first regulating the future legal basis for sterilisations in accordance with Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine by the Council of Europe, ETS Nr 164, 1999; and the second creating a legal basis for compensation and redress.

64 Stellungnahme Bundesrat (SB) Parlamentarische Initiative Zwangssterilisation. Entschädigung für Opfer (von Felten). Bericht der Kommission für Rechtsfrage des Nationalrates vom 23. Juni 2003, 99.451: 6355-6368.

65 As above at 6356.

66 This social change in attitudes, the Federal Council stipulated, could not only be seen in relation to disabled people’s rights to sexuality but also in changing legislation on welfare measures such as administrative internment.

67 Stellungnahme Bundesrat above note 64 at 6357.

68 Swiss welfare authorities had a range of measures at their disposal to deal with families perceived to be poor or unruly which have come to the attention of the media, the public and politicians since the late 1990s and which have some 20 years later resulted in the Reparation Initiative (Wiedergutmachungsinitiative) submitted in December 2014. One of these was the practice of contracting children from poor families out to farmers or placing them in families where they were often subjected to hardship and more. 15.082 Botschaft zur Volksinitiative ‘Wiedergutmachung für Verdingkinder and Opfer fürsorgerischer Zwangssmassnahmen (Wiedergutmachungsinitiative)’ und zum indirekten Gegenvorschlag (Bundesgesetz ueber die Aufarbeitung der fürsorgerischen Zwangsmassnahmen und Fremdplatzierungen vor 1981) BBL 2016 101 <https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/federal-gazette/2016/101.pdf> Accessed 12 April 2016.

69 It was argued that past events should not be judged by present ethical standards which would only do injustice to those individuals who, at the time, acted in the interest of society and on the basis of prevalent social norms.

70 Schürer Stefan Die Verfassung im Zeichen historischer Gerechtigkeit. Schweizer Vergangenheitsbewältigung zwischen Wiedergutmachung und Politik mit der Geschichte Chronos Zürich 2009 p 297.

71 BBI 2004 7265 Blocher.

72 This despite an attempt by a group of historians who lobbied parliament to adopt a reparation law after the rejection. BBI 2004 7265 Menétrey-Savary.

73 Bundesgesetz über die Hilfe an Opfer von Straftaten (Opferhilfegesetz, OHG) 2007 312.5 <https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classified-compilation/20041159/index.html> Accessed 12 April 2016.

74 Administrative internment (administrative Versorgung) was a means of effecting imprisonment on the basis of the Swiss Civil Code of 1912 rather than through criminal law which had led to widespread abuses of the system in the early parts of the twentieth century, such as in cases of Contract Children.

75 AB 2004 N 251 BR Blocher.

76 Huonker above note 18.

77 AB 2004 N 251 BR Blocher.

78 Leimgruber et al above note 15 at 11.

79 Stellungnahme Bundesrat above note 64 at 6359.

80 As above at 6359.

81 The Swiss government also rectified its wrong doing towards those who helped refugees before and during WWII who were, according to legislation at the time, sentenced to prison. See Schürer above note 70 at 298. Sozialgesetzbuch (SGB) V — Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung — Artikel 1 des Gesetzes 20 December 1988 BGBl I 2477.

82 Stellungnahme Bundesrat above note 64 at 6359.

83 Irrengesetz von 1901 IV. Abschnitt Art 28 3 September 1928 concerning the sterilisation of mentally deficient people. See also Huonker above note 18 at 141.

84 Bundesblatt Bericht des Bundesrates an die Bundesversammlung über das Volksbegehren ‘Für die Familie’ vom 10. Oktober 1944 Jahrgang 96 22 Bd I.

85 Wecker Regina ‘Der Bund hat Zwangssterilisationen begünstigt’ Basler Zeitung 6 January 2004.

86 UEK Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz-Zweiter Weltkrieg Die Schweiz, der Nationalsozialismus und der Zweite Weltkrieg: Schlussbericht Pendo Zurich 2002.

87 Visker above note 10.

88 Schürer above note 70 at 302.

89 As above at 301–303.

90 AB 2004 N 246 Mathys SVP. See full chronology at <https://www.parlament.ch/en/ratsbetrieb/amtliches-bulletin/amtliches-bulletin-die-verhandlungen?SubjectId=8011> Accessed 3 August 2010.

91 Schürer above note 70 at 301 where he lists an appeal case from 1939 in which the courts in Zurich deemed it illegal to condition the granting of a marriage licence to a voluntary sterilisation.

92 AB 2004 N 253 Kälin SP

93 AB 2004 N 253 Kälin SP

94 <http//www.wiedergutmachung.ch/initiative/at7> Accessed 12 April 2016.

95 Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee, Switzerland, UN Doc. CCPR/C/CHE/CO/3 (2009) <https://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/hrcommittee/switzerland2009.html> Accessed 12 April 2016.

96 Bundesverwaltung <https://www.news.admin.ch/message/index.html?lang=de&msg-id=48480> Accessed 12 April 2016.

97 Speech Simonetta Sommaruga Gedenkanlass für ehemalige Verdingkinder und Opfer von fürsorgerischen Zwangsmassnahmen Bern 11 April 2013 <http://www.news.admin.ch/NSBSubscriber/message/attachments/30274.pdf> Accessed 12 April 2016.

98 As above.

99 BBL 2016 155 <https://www.parlament.ch/de/ratsbetrieb/suche-curia-vista/geschaeft?AffairId=20150082>Accessed 12 April 2016.

100 For example, Buti Antonio ‘Reparations, Justice Theories and Stolen Generations’ (2008) 34 University of Western Australia Law Review 168; Reilly Alex ‘The Inherent Limits of the Apology to the Stolen Generation’ University of Adelaide Law Research Paper No 2009–002; Cuneen Chris ‘Colonialism and Historical Injustice: Reparations for Indigenous People’ (2005) 15 Social Semiotics 59; Hocking Barbara Ann ‘Confronting the Possible Eugenics of the Past through Modern Pressures for Compensation’ (2000) 69 Nordic Journal of International Law 501.

101 <https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2008B00054> Accessed 12 April 2016.

102 <http://www.statedevelopment.sa.gov.au/news-releases/all-news-updates/reparations-scheme-for-sas-stolen-generations> Accessed 12 April 2016.

103 Mottier Véronique and Gerodetti Natalia ‘Eugenics and Social Democracy: Or, How the European Left Tried to Eliminate the “Weeds” From its National Gardens’ (2007) 20 New Formations 35.

104 Cuneen above note 100.

105 For a full chronology see also <http://www.fuersorgerischezwangsmassnahmen.ch/de/2015-12-04_mm_botschaft.html> Accessed 12 April 2016.

106 Thompson above note 30.

107 Swiss women did not receive full political rights until 1971.

108 This section arises from a guest talk by Nancy Fraser at the university of Leeds, UK, in a paper entitled ‘Who Counts? Dilemmas of Justice in a Postwestphalian World’ in 2009 and is more fully developed in Fraser above note 1. See also Fraser and Honneth above note 1; with Axel Honneth Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the Postsocialist Condition Routledge London 1997.

109 Fraser above note 1.

110 In relation to historic injustices by colonialist regimes and imperial ventures, Fraser’s work has been taken to be useful in asking questions about the usefulness of representation and frame-setting at the time yet overriding this is the actual exploitation and violation of the colonial and imperial subject population, thereby making it a question of redistribution. Thus, while Fraser undertakes a rethinking of a critical democratic theory of justice and continuously asks questions about the borders and boundaries (and their relevance) of nations, jurisdictions and responsibilities, this question is never expanded, or so it seems, to ask whether this is not merely about spatiality and geographies but also about time and temporalities.

111 Foucault Michel Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason Routledge London 2001 [1961].

112 O’Rourke above note 34.

113 15.082 BBL 2016 101 as above.

114 Visker above note 10 at 22.