Understanding Prison
MENA Prison Forum in Berlin #2
Part of the series “Understanding Prison”
Performance and presentation “ISIS Prisons Museum” / With Robin Yassin-Kassab, Gary Snyder, Talal al-Shuweimi & Anwar al-Bunni / Directed by Ayham Al-Agha / Arabic and English with simultaneous translation into German, English and Arabic
Talk “From Abu Ghraib to Sednaya: A conversation about prison and accountability in the MENA region” / Wolfgang Kaleck in conversation with Katja Maurer / German with simultaneous English and Arabic translation
- Dialogue
- Performance
Arabic /
German /
English /
with simultaneous translation /
approx. 120 min.
The “ISIS Prisons Museum” is a virtual museum that uses digital technologies to document the sites of Islamic State (IS) crimes in Syria and Iraq and analyse them in the context of regional history. The online museum will also be made accessible in exhibitions to raise public awareness of the crimes of IS, enable prosecution and support survivors and families of the disappeared. The creators are presenting the virtual museum, which went online in October 2024 after years of forensic work, for the first time in Germany.
What legal approaches are there to human rights violations in prisons? The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) is diving deep into this question, including in the Middle East. Back in 2006, German human rights lawyer and current ECCHR Secretary General Wolfgang Kaleck filed charges against the then US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and other Pentagon executives – for war crimes and human rights violations in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. In 2019, the ECCHR supported 29 torture survivors from Syria in a high-profile case in Koblenz in the so-called Al-Khatib trial. This chapter of torture in Syrian prisons ended with the fall of Assad's rule in December 2024, and since then, the debate about victims and perpetrators and the demand for accountability rages on. This interview looks back while also looking ahead in the reappraisal of the crimes in Syria.
The MENA Prison Forum is dedicated to researching prison culture in the MENA region. The interdisciplinary, international network includes former prisoners, filmmakers, academics and activists from various countries. Together with medico international and HAU, the organisers are presenting parts of their work as a series of events at HAU which takes place instead of a conference planned for December 2023.
Dates
Past
Credits
A cooperation by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, medico international, MENA Prison Forum, UMAM D&R, Prisons Museum, ECCHR.
Location
HAU1
Stresemannstr. 29, 10963 BerlinThere are two marked parking spots in front of the building. Access to the Parkett by means of a separate entrance with lift when necessary. Barrier-free restroom facilities are available. Tickets for wheelchair users and accompanying persons can be booked via the ticketing system. If you need any help, please contact our Ticketing & Service team at +49 (0)30 259004-27 or send us an email at
tickets@hebbel-am-ufer.de.
