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

The recognition and compensation of historic injustices is part and parcel of a politics of recognition and of socio-legal attempts of 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. The 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.