BASECAMP

15 April 2026, 17:00 - 21:30

How to Repair Historical Injustice?

Kick Off Night of the Dialogics of Justice Conference
with Nicole Immloer, Hasan & Nasiha Nuhanović, Hope Rikkelman & Liesbeth Zegveld
organized by the University of Humanistic Studies and the NWO
hosted by BAK Basecamp

The last decade has witnessed an increase in civil proceedings brought before Dutch district courts by people adversely affected by colonial violence, military missions, sexual abuse, and environmental harm. Does legal action against institutions such as the Dutch state, the military, the church, and multinationals bring about the recognition and justice that people long for? What are chances and limitations of civil law to do justice? How do these cases resonate with large scale society-wide scandals regarding the massive human rights violations in the child benefit affair (‘Toeslagen’) and the gas extraction in Groningen; and the massive deficits of those reparation programs? Which conditions are conducive, and which less favourable for people to feel recognized? And what is the role played by state- and non-state institutions in enabling recognition procedures to become transformative?

In the five-year research project Dialogics of Justice – funded by a VICI-grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) – we examined at the University of Humanistic Studies in an interdisciplinary team these questions to contribute to making future recognition and reparation procedures more effective and transformative. Our cross-case study aimed to broaden the classic Transitional Justice focus on mass human rights violations towards social, economic, and ecological violence. We advocate for a Transformative Justice Approach; for us this means to see and reveal the logics of systemic/institutional injustice and identify the coloniality in all our cases; also in the repair instruments.

This is our final conference, presenting the research findings and reflecting on them with (inter)national scholars, stakeholders and representatives of injured parties; the gains and losses of such legal processes (in a wider sense); the merits of a related approach (when being productive or unproductive), the role of the imagination (art), and looking for lessons learned in bringing the local/global into a conversation. Our conference seeks multiple dialogues, between law/humanities, academia/activism, North/South, facts/imagination. To foster exchange and build networks the full attendance of participants is highly valued.

Join us for our kick-off public event on April 15th at BAK Basecamp, with human rights advocate Liesbeth Zegveld as our keynote speaker. Hasan Nuhanović, who together with Zegveld held the Dutch state liable for the killing of his family during the Srebrenica genocide, and his daughter Nasiha will then share their expertise and experience on the lived and transgenerational impact of court cases. On the 16th and 17th the conference will continue at the University of Humanistic Studies (see the programme for details).

Feel very welcome to come, the conference is free.
If you want to attend then please fill out this form.

For the full program, check the Dialogics of Justice website HERE