A victim-driven approach to confront crimes of the powerful

Dr Valeria Vegh Weis, LL.M, PhD., is Argentinean/German and teaches Criminology and Transitional Justice at Buenos Aires University and National Quilmes University (Argentina). She is currently a Research Fellow at Universität Konstanz Zukunftskolleg. She has held different fellowships including the Fulbright and the Alexander von Humboldt. Her first book, Marxism and Criminology: A History of Criminal Selectivity, was awarded the Choice Award by the American Library Association and the Outstanding Book Award by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. She is also the author of Bienvenidos al Lawfare and Criminalization of Activism. She was recently awarded the American Society of Criminology DCCSJ Critical Criminology of the Year Award (2021).

Each March 24th, the Argentinean human rights movement together with civil society organisations engage in massive mobilisations nationwide to reinforce demands for truth, memory and justice concerning the crimes perpetrated in the last dictatorship (1976-1983). This event sheds light on the way in which Argentina pursued a bottom-up strategy to deal with state crimes. Based on this case, I develop the notion of a victim-driven approach by exploring those elements of the victims’ successful struggle that might be useful to enhance survivors’ organisations that are struggling with crimes of the state in other parts of the globe.

To do this, I analyse the achievements of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo by showing their independent work during a variety of political circumstances at the national level and how they did not “took part” in a governmental or internationally-conducted transitional justice process but they faced, conducted and challenged the crimes of the powerful through an independent work.

This seminar is part of an online open seminar series, hosted by the Centre for Criminology.

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