Rosario Figari Layús is a researcher and professor at the Chair of Peace Studies at the Faculty of Law of the Justus-Liebig University of Giessen in Germany. She received her PhD in political science from the University of Marburg in Germany.  Previously, she obtained her bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Buenos Aires and a master's degree in social sciences at the Humboldt University of Berlin. She has worked in research and teaching at various universities in Germany and Latin America such as the Free University of Berlin, the University of Heidelberg, the University of Konstanz, the University of Bielefeld, the University of Marburg, the University of Buenos Aires, the University of the Andes. She has also been a consultant for human rights projects for cooperation agencies in Germany and Europe. Her areas of work and research are political violence, armed conflicts and dictatorial regimes, human rights, transitional justice, and peacebuilding studies.

Publications (selection)

Book:

2020 (with Capdepón, Ulrike, Eds), The Impact of Human Rights Prosecutions:  Insights from European, Latin American, and African Post-Conflict Societies. Leuven University Press.

2017. The Reparative Effects of Human Rights Trials: Lessons from Argentina. Transitional Justice Series. Routledge.

2015. Los juicios por sus protagonistas Doce Historias sobre los juicios de lesa humanidad en Argentina. Editorial Universitaria de Villa María, Argentina.

2010. The role of transitional justice in the midst of ongoing armed conflicts: the case of Colombia. Editorial de la Universidad de Potsdam. Potsdamer Studien zu Staat, Recht und Politik 5.

 

Artículos:

2021. “Frieden für wen? Sicherheitspolitik im Kontext der Gewalt gegen Menschenrechtsaktivist_innen in Kolumbien“. Zeitschrift für Friedens-und Konfliktforschung

2021 (with Krüger A. y Peters S.). Friedens- und Konfliktforschung in Lateinamerika: En: Lay Brander, Miriam (Ed.): Ein Überblick. Einführung in die Lateinamerikastudien. ZILAS, (en impresión).

2021. “Transitional Justice in Latin America: Toward What Kind of Justice? ” In: Louis, Tatjana / Molope, Mokgadi / Peters, Stefan (Eds.): Dealing with the Past in Latin America. Southern Africa and Germany. Baden-Baden: Nomos. (en impresión)

2021 (with Gonzales, Juliana y Murillo, Indira. El sistema Integral de Verdad, Justicia, Reparación y no repetición (SIVJRNR) frente a la pandemia de Covid. Policy Brief, Cololbian-German Institute Capaz /Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz (CAPAZ), Bogotá.

2020. “Schutzregime in Lateinamerika: Sicherheitsparadigmen im Rahmen der politischen Gewalt gegen Menschenrechtsverteidiger*innen: Akteure, Dynamik und Widersprüche”. En: Peters, Stefan (Ed.): Gewalt und Konfliktbearbeitung in Lateinamerika. Baden-Baden

2020. “Widersprüche und Herausforderungen staatlicher Schutzprogramme für Menschenrechtsverteidiger*innen in Lateinamerika”. MenschenRechtsmagazin, Universität Potsdam.

2018. “Pequeños Triunfos: El impacto reparador de los juicios por crímenes de lesa humanidad en Argentina”. Forum. Revista Departamento de Ciencia Política, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

2017. (with Oettler, A.) “Género y la evolución de la justicia transicional. El caso de reparaciones a víctimas de violencia política sexualizada en Argentina, Guatemala, Perú y Colombia”. En: Svenja Blanke / Sabine Kurtenbach (Eds.): Violencia y desigualdades en América Latina, Buenos Aires: Nueva Sociedad.

2017 (with Henriquez, N.): “Justice and Reparations Policies in Peru and Argentina: Towards the de-legitimization of sexual violence?”. En: John Idriss Lahai/ Khanyisela Moyo (Eds.): Gender in Human Rights and Transitional Justice. Palgrave Macmillan.

2017. “Strafprozesse in Argentinien”. En: Anja Mihr/ Gert Pickel / Susanne Pickel (Eds.): Handbuch Transitional Justice. Aufarbeitung von Unrecht - hin zur Rechtsstaatlichkeit und Demokratie Springer.

2015. “What do you mean by Transitional Justice?”. Local Perspectives on Human Rights Trials in Argentina”. En: Nina Schneider / Marcia Esparza (Eds.): Legacies of State Violence and Transitional Justice in Latin America: A Janus-Faced Paradigm?, Lexington Books: 3-17.

2015. “Políticas de impunidad y justicia: El doble filo de la ley en Argentina, sus consecuencias sociopolíticas y efectos en las víctimas”. TALLER (Segunda Época). Revista de Sociedad, Cultura y Política en América Latina No. 5, Dossier Temático: Justicia de Transición en Latinoamérica.

2015 (with Domínguez, E., Openshaw, E. et al.). En Defensa de la Vida. Conclusiones de la Misión de Observación Civil sobre la situación de las personas defensoras en México. Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos.

2015 (with Henriquez, N.): “Silencio institucional, legitimación y deslegitimación de la violencia sexual en escenarios de posconflicto y violencia estatal. Los casos de Perú y Argentina”. Cuaderno de Trabajo No 26. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

2014. “Violencia, Poder y Justicia: contrastes de Argentina y Colombia en políticas de justicia pre y post-transicional”. En: Alonso Maximiliano / Silvana Mandolessi (Eds.): Los estudios de la memoria hoy. Editorial Universitaria de Villa María, Argentina: 119-144.

2014. “Implementing Transitional Justice: Insights from Latin America”. Moving Beyond: Towards Transitional Justice in the Bangsamoro Peace Process. Forum Civil Peace Service (forumZFD): 16-19.

 

Research project as CALAS fellow

Title: Facing the past? Elites and violence of yesterday and today in transitional justice processes in Latin America

Abstract: The project analyzes the relationship of political and economic elites with transitional justice (TJ) processes and current violence in Latin America, especially with a focus on Argentina, Colombia, and Guatemala. Many of the current TJ processes in the region are being subjected to violence and attacks in various ways against those who participate in them. The irruption or continuity of violence in contexts can seriously affect not only their functioning and the scope of their objectives, but also limit the participation of victims and deepen the damage already inflicted by re-victimizing them. With the question of what the role of elites in transitional justice processes is and in the current violence that affects them, this project aims to account for the continuity of actors, interests and practices of violence that go beyond the processes of political transition and that remain in force - although in a more or less subtle way, but no less cruel for that - in post-transitional scenarios. The role of the political and economic elites seems to be crucial in these post-transitional continuities and the policies of truth, justice and reparation that are implemented in them. Hence, this project proposes a multidimensional analysis that accounts relationship between elites and transitional justice from three complementary and dialectical perspectives

General objective:

To analyze the ambivalent and conflictive relationship between political and economic elites and transitional justice processes in Latin America in the last six years (2016-2021) in Argentina, Colombia, and Guatemala.

Specific objectives:

• To examine the role of political elites in the implementation of transitional justice policies and, especially in relation to criminal proceedings.
• To give an account for how the transitional justice measures implemented, especially in criminal justice, reflect and address the role of participation and responsibility of economic elites in serious human rights violations during the dictatorship in Argentina, and the armed conflicts in Guatemala and Colombia.
• To identify the role of political and economic elites in the current dynamics and forms of violence – as well as their consequences – in transitional justice processes in Argentina, Colombia, and Guatemala.