Entre éthique, justice et politique : la demande de pardon des États. Le cas des Unangan (Aléoutes) de l'Alaska

• Published in: Canadian journal of law and society
• Main Author: de la Casinière, Annik Chiron
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2006
• Subjects: Law; Sociology and Political Science; Aléoutes; Unangan; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jls.2006.0032; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0829320100008735

Abstract This paper deals with the official apology offered by governments to peoples or groups, often a minority of their own nation, who were once victims of a crime against humanity. After staying six months in Alaska with the Unangan people who, in 1988 for the first time in the country's history, received from the American Congress official apologies and financial compensation for their evacuation and internment during WWII, I have returned with a significant amount of data. They tend to show that if such apologies, although considered unanimously as a positive gesture, are not accompanied by certain essential conditions, they are viewed mainly as a political strategy and comedy. Furthermore, if this evolution results directly from recently-acquired historical, legal and political consciousness of peoples, especially of Aboriginal peoples, it represents a new kind of test for individuals and groups in our democracies who are really concerned with common welfare.