In the last century, the treatment of victims of involuntary sterilisation and castration in Nordic countries has varied drastically from state-to-state, across time and victim groups. Considering why this is the case, Daniela Alaattinoglu investigates how laws and practices of involuntary, surgical sterilisation and castration have been established, abolished and remedied in three Nordic states: Sweden, Norway and Finland. Employing a vast range of primary and secondary sources, Alaattinoglu traces the national and international developments of the last 100 years. Developing the concept of grievance formation, the book explores why some states have claimed public responsibility while others have not, and why some victim groups have mobilised while others have remained silent. Through this pioneering analysis, Alaattinoglu illuminates issues of human and constitutional rights, the evolution of the welfare state and state responsibility in both a national and global context.
The discussion will focus on chapters 6 (From Harms to Remedies?) and 1 (Victims, Harms and Grievance Formation) of the book, which is available here.
About the speaker:
Daniela Alaattinoglu is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Turku. She has previously held an Icelandic Research Fund postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Iceland and visiting fellowships at the Åbo Akademi Institute for Human Rights, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and the University of Melbourne. She did her PhD at the EUI (2014–2019).