Réhabiliter les « éléments dangereux pour la société » ? La politique mémorielle à l’égard des internés administratifs en Suisse

Abstract

In Switzerland, up until 1981, certain individuals whose behaviour, though not criminal, was considered detrimental to society were targeted for administrative – and sometimes permanent detention - if their behaviour was deemed incorrigible. The perceived improvement to the collective moral character was believed to grant the practice legitimacy. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, a politics of memory has sought to make reparation for what is now acknowledged as an injustice driven by arbitrary processes. By comparing and contrasting these two periods of history, we identify what has to remain forgotten if a status of victim is be publicly affirmed.

Keywords

• victim
• administrative internment
• Switzerland
• incurability
• politics of memory