Does “never again” have a gender? A comparative analysis of truth commissions in Chile and Argentina

Abstract

This article problematizes the narratives of Nunca Más (1984) and the Rettig Report (1991) using gender theory and a comparative transnational approach. Although each truth commission report exhibits some differences in its discourse, we propose that the post-dictatorship mission to “re-found” the nationstate purposefully utilized discourse frames that focused on forced disappearances, which were presented as a metaphor of rupture and as the major symbol of “never again”. For this reason, we conclude that in Argentina and Chile both, this universalist construction of “never again” and of the victims of human rights violations is also by extension androcentric, and therefore tends to marginalize and silence the experiences of female survivors, particularly with regard to sexual political violence and family torture.