Blindfolded prisoners contort under guards. Parastou Forouhar, Panorama, Serie II, 2009. All rights reserved.
As new configurations in the world order are pledged through an agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme, a common point shared by the two main negotiators, Iran and the United States, was their enduring records of impunity for torture and extrajudicial killings that have both been eluded or justified by global power politics. How should we respond to torture when it is committed by the most powerful nation in the world? How should we react to such crimes when they are committed by countries whose recent history has been written over mass violence, and whose ruling elite are made up of past perpetrators?
openSecurity’s new series, States of Impunity, explores how state crimes endure and are covered-up within the geopolitics and micropolitics of impunity, and how wounded societies work in response to untie the knot of violence and silence. Organized into four sections, and launched over two weeks, the series brings together a range of scholars and practitioners to share their insight on the internal workings of power, truth and justice, in situations where forecasting is difficult and conflicts are ongoing.
