Unearthing Ambiguities: Post-Genocide Justice in Raoul Peck’s "Sometimes in April" and the ICTR case Nahimana et al.

This article examines Raoul Peck’s portrayal of post-genocide justice in Rwanda in his film Sometimes in April (2005). The film, which depicts the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and its aftermath a decade later, resonates with the ICTR case Prosecutor v. Nahimana et al. with its focus on hate speech as genocide. The shared questions connect the two distinct narrative forms that are part of the global social discourse on Rwanda, allowing them to be analysed side by side. Building upon close readings, this article asks: Who is guilty and what counts as a crime? What kind of impact do justice mechanisms have? Whose interests does the ICTR serve? Extending interdisciplinary research on Rwanda across law and cultural studies, I argue that analysing Sometimes in April helps unearth ambiguities within and surrounding the ICTR. Peck’s film and the legal case together communicate a rounded understanding of post-genocide justice to outside audiences, as it is experienced or perceived from local and international perspectives

Challenging positions: agency and expectations in testimonial writing about genocide in Rwanda and war in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This article explores Yolande Mukagasana and Semezdin Mehmedinović’s highly aestheticised testimonial writing about the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and the Bosnian War. My analysis of Mukagasana’s Not My Time to Die and Mehmedinović’s Sarajevo Blues opens up a rich comparison that demonstrates the problematic nature of a social expectation and assumption that a survivor is active and strong in contrast to a passive and helpless victim. To unpack complexity of these categorisations, this article asks two questions: How do these two testimonies portray those who outlived violence and died as a result of it? What do these narratives tell us about the labels of a victim and survivor? After discussing the meaning of a victim and survivor in scholarship and local contexts, I will trace ways in which Mukagasana and Mehmedinović’s writing balances expressions of agency and recognition of the uncontrollable. The discussion will also examine actions that may appear less valuable or less visible than others and the implications of depiction of victims as active agents. The comparative analysis of the two literary texts complicates the categories of a victim and survivor, challenging the distance between the reader and those who outlived genocide or war

Twenty-Five Years on: Trauma, Peacebuilding and Lessons from Bosnia and Herzegovina

This review essay assesses two new books which will be of particular interest to human rights and peacebuilding practitioners working in post-conflict settings: Ann Petrila and Hasan Hasanović’s Voices from Srebrenica: Survivor Narratives of the Bosnian Genocide and Healing and Peacebuilding after War: Transforming Trauma in Bosnia and Herzegovina, edited by Julianne Funk, Nancy Good, and Marie E. Berry

Embracing complexity in international forest governance: a way forward; Policy Brief

This Policy Brief summarizes the findings of a comprehensive assessment of scientific information about international forest governance carried out by an Expert Panel of over 30 of the world's leading scientists working in the areas of environmental governance and international forest law. It aims to provide policy and decision makers with essential knowledge and building blocks required for a more effective and inclusive governance of the world's forest

Precise determination of the hyperfine parameters of europium in multifluorite perovskites by 151Eu Mössbauer spectroscopy

The hyperfine interactions at the europium lattice sites in samples of the homologous (Fe,Cu)Sr2(Eu,Ce)nCu2O4+2n+z (n=2,3) series were studied by Eu151 Mössbauer spectroscopy. The work was motivated by the search for new superconducting phases. This homologous series is based on the YBa2Cu3O7−δ (1:2:3) structure. The samples used in the Mössbauer measurements consisted of crystallites with random orientation and grain oriented crystallites. The texture of oriented samples was analyzed by x-ray diffraction. The complete quadrupole Hamiltonian of the 21.5-keV γ-transition of Eu151 was successfully applied in the analyses of all the Mössbauer spectra. In samples having n≤2 the europium atoms occupy a single lattice site, whereas the spectra of the n=3 samples exhibit hyperfine interactions of the two different europium sites. Analyzing the hyperfine parameters of the latter samples was made possible by simultaneous fitting of three spectra, corresponding to three different crystal orientations of the same specimen. This fitting scheme also enables more precise determination of the hyperfine parameters in the n=2 samples. In these samples an electric field gradient (EFG), with a large negative-valued main component (Vzz) parallel with the crystal c axis, was found. In the n=3 samples, the two EFG’s of the europium sites were found to have Vzz components of opposite signs. The negative Vzz value was attributed to the rare-earth site adjacent to the CuO layer. This site, found in all samples of the series, corresponds to the rare-earth site of the 1:2:3 system.Peer reviewe

Europium substitution effects in superconducting YBa2Cu4O8 synthesized under one atmosphere oxygen pressure

Y1−xEuxBa2Cu4O8 powder samples, with x=0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0, were synthesized at ambient pressure using either an acetate-tartrate sol-gel method or a LiF flux process. The lattice parameters and purity of the samples were checked using X-ray diffraction. The superconducting transition was monitored by magnetic-susceptibility measurements. Replacing yttrium with europium increased the unit-cell volume, decreased the orthorhombicity (b/a) and the critical temperature. The hyperfine interactions at the europium site were studied by Eu151 Mössbauer spectroscopy. The complete quadrupole Hamiltonian of the 21.5-keV γ transition of Eu151 was successfully applied in the analyses of the Mössbauer spectra. The Mössbauer parameters obtained were found to resemble those measured for the EuBa2Cu3Cu3O7−δ (1:2:3) system. It was demonstrated that magnetic alignment of the crystallites could not be obtained with an 11.7-T field, contrary to the 1:2:3 and other high-Tc systems. The magnetic susceptibility for 1:2:4 single crystals appears to be isotropic.Peer reviewe