Human Rights Counterpublics in Per

In 2003, Pers Comisin de la Verdad y Reconciliacin (CVR) issued its groundbreaking final report on the human rights abuses perpetuated by two revolutionary groups and the countrys armed forces and police from 1980 to 2000. Sylvanna M. Falcn examines how local communities in Lima have formed oppositional spaces, movements, and communities to challenge a status quo that erases Pers history of internal violence. These counterpublics focus on human rights-oriented memory that acknowledges the legacies of racism and misogyny underlying the violence. Falcns decolonial feminist analysis challenges the rise of authoritarianism in democratic societies while exploring the limits of liberalism to counteract it. As she shows, projects shaped by counterpublic memory best equip Pervians to enact real, liberatory, and transformative justice for human rights violations both past and present. Engaging and intimate, Human Rights Counterpublics in Per illuminates the power of human rights and memory work.