Conclusion: Documentation of State Terrorism as Resistance

Abstract

This chapter provides the book’s conclusions. It proposes to look at documentation of state terrorism as a peaceful act of disobedience and a productive form of resistance. In the Chilean case, anti-dictatorial resistance operated at four levels: (i) Morally, it represented a work of care, a space of human dignity and solidarity in the face of horror; (ii) Epistemically, registration allowed state terrorism to become known, guiding actions to assist and defend those affected, and providing an alternative account to the one proclaimed by the regime; (iii) Ontologically, documenting practices brought the reality of state terror into being, confronting the repressor state’s denial. Moreover, such practices came to offer a way of acting in the world with sufficient evidentiary strength; and (iv) Organisationally, documentation encouraged different actors to gather in collective response, turning their truth into that of the majority. Finally, the chapter hinges upon documentation capacity to reach beyond its local setting into the global arena.