What constitutes an act of humility? El Instituto at the University of Connecticut hosted a talk on Tuesday, Oct. 29 where Dr. Robin Greeley explored what defines an act of humility, the context surrounding it and how it can develop over time. She uses the case study of Campo Algodonero, Mexico — a monument to all the women who have died in Ciudad Juarez during the past three decades because of femicide.
To explore this topic, Greeley first stated that an act of humility should be assessed on the ability of the actor, whether it be an individual or state actor, to own their wrongs. Greeley used this criterion when looking at the case of femicide in Mexico. Femicide rose during the 1990s in Mexico, and it made cities like Ciudad Juarez the most dangerous in the world. In 2009, the United Nations (UN) asked the Mexican state to carry out reparations for the case of Campo Algodonero, where three women where sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered. Their bodies were left in a field.
The criteria for the reparations were outlined by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which viewed it through a gender-based lens. They asked Mexico to carry out integral reparations, where all the monetary and non-monetary reparations would serve the purpose of repairing a victim’s circumstances. The courts challenged the Mexican state to implement institutional reform and to try reshaping Mexican culture to prevent gender-based violence. They also ask for these reparations to be reparative and transformative, which Dr. Greeley described as “future looking as well as back looking.”
The Mexican government issued a public apology in 2011, coinciding with the opening of the Campo Algodonero memorial site for all the victims of femicide, in the same field where the three dead women were found. Deputy government secretary Felipe Zamora was there as the Mexican state proxy delivered their apology towards femicide victims.
In a televised event, Zamora gave a seemingly sincere, lengthy apology, owned to the wrongdoings of the Mexican government not being able to protect those women and talked about the institutional reform Mexico was doing to prevent gender-based violence. Yet, the apology was vehemently rejected by the victims’ families and protestors, who believed the memorial site was inhospitable and a waste of space, and that the whole event was paying lip service to the issue at hand. They thought the apology did not combat any institutional wrongs and didn’t own up to any grave wrongs nor recognize them.
To explain why the apology was rejected and what it can tell us about humility in transitional justice, Greeley argues three points. One must consider what the act of humility entails for each stakeholder; in this case, the stakeholders are the Mexican government, the inter-American court and the families of femicide victims. They all have different ideas for a sincere act of humility. One has to consider the context of the situation. One also has to evaluate the effectiveness of an act of humility over time. Should we measure an act of humility’s effectiveness immediately, or should we wait a while and come back to the topic then?
Greeley states that an act of humility should notice and own a limitation and also own a grave wrong. An act of virtuous humility should also do the same but be delivered with good judgment and backed by good ulterior motives. These acts shouldn’t serve as lip service and the actor should mean their words. This definition does become hard to follow when you are dealing with a group, like the Mexican state. Can a whole group be uniformly humble?
They can be, as people’s tendency to follow the group may make it possible for a group not made of uniformly humble people to own up to a wrong. But this group tendency humans have can also go the other way. Circling back to the apology Zamora gave, Dr. Greeley told us an anecdote about how she showed her colleagues the text of the apology Zamora gave. Her colleagues thought it was a good, humble and sincere apology.
Afterwards, though, Dr. Greeley showed a short clip of the apology Zamora gave, which devolved into a shouting match between Zamora and protestors. Other protestors and family members of femicide victims boycotted the memorial. So, why aren’t the victims happy with this apology?
In the 2009 judgment by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the courts condemned the Mexican state for not trying to prosecute anyone for the murder of three women in Campo Algodonero, and the state have made no further efforts since. Zamora himself didn’t seem too humble when giving his apology, as he was trying to shout at the protestors. Both the protestors and courts also looked at human rights differently in this case, as the protestors and victims took a moral approach while the courts took a legal one.
There is also the broader context of the apology. The memorial site itself has fallen into disrepair after the media event in 2011, and it is an eyesore that is situated on the outskirts of Juarez, far away from the city. There is a commemorative bronze statue at the memorial site for all the femicide victims, but the artist who had worked on it had three days to work, which wasn’t enough time to take the input of femicide victims on what the monument should be. During the apology event, protestors argued that the government was trying to sweep the issue under the rug with this event, rather than deal with this “ongoing and systemic problem.”
But the apology developed over time. While the 2011 public apology was a media fiasco, subsequent events in 2022 and 2024 were much more positive and less of a fiasco. The highest-ranking human rights government officials were present to give apologies, instead of Zamora, who wasn’t too important. Victims spoke at these events and attended them as well, being much more willing to listen and participate.
Yet, it still doesn’t change the fact that, according to Dr. Greeley, no one has been prosecuted for their actions, the Mexican court system hasn’t been revamped to prevent gender-based violence (although the recent news that judges are now elected positions may help) and femicide is still rampant.
Throughly explained!