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Annual Celebration 2019 | 12th Marburg Lecture on International Criminal Law with Prof. Dr. Sabine Andresen

The annual celebration began with a welcome address by the Executive Director of the ICWC, Prof. Dr. Stefanie Bock, followed by greetings from the Vice President for Information Management, Prof. Dr. Thomas Nauss, and the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Dr. Jens Puschke. Prof. Dr. Bock then presented the centre’s activity report for the period 2018–2019. After an overview of the ICWC’s work, the certificates for successful participation in the Trial-Monitoring Programme were awarded. This was followed by Prof. Dr. Sabine Andresen’s lecture on International Criminal Law. A brief summary of the lecture can be found below.

For Prof. Dr. Sabine Andresen, Professor of Family Studies and Social Pedagogy at Goethe University Frankfurt and, since January 2016, Chair of the Independent Commission for the Investigation of Sexual Abuse of Children, the invitation to deliver the 12th Marburg Lecture on International Criminal Law as part of the ICWC’s annual celebration came as a surprise. How does the Commission’s area of work relate to that of the ICWC? Structured around seven points, she sought in her lecture to answer questions about the societal processing of sexual abuse of children, the role of this process in achieving intergenerational justice, and the insights gained from the memories of those affected, all from a childhood and educational theory perspective, thereby successfully bridging the topic to the lecture series.

Introducing her lecture and precisely defining the problem area, she outlined in the first point, “Injustice in Childhood,” the guiding principle of the Commission: one must do justice both to the particularity of the child as a child and to the universality of the child as a human being. This entails connecting children’s rights with child protection, as well as combining care with autonomy, in other words, the right to a violence-free upbringing, as codified since 2000. However, engaging with injustice in childhood faces specific challenges, including the child’s particular dependence on caregivers, their limited choice over their social environment, and the historically limited knowledge about children’s vulnerability.

These challenges form the basis on which, in the second point, “Order of Discourses on Sexual Child Abuse,” the genesis of the debate was presented as a field of tension between taboo and collective knowledge. On the one hand, violence against children is universally condemned, for example under Sections 174 and 176 of the German Criminal Code (StGB), yet the question popularized by Foucault—the “will to truth”—remains: does the public even want to be informed about the extent of sexual abuse of children? Using key historical turning points as illustrations, Andresen demonstrated the gradual expansion of societal engagement with this issue. In 1984, prompted by authors Kavemann and Lohstöter, fathers were scrutinized as perpetrators; in 1999, the exposure of the sexual abuse scandal at the Odenwald School marked the end of the notion of the school as a safe space. At the same time, massive public resistance emerged, questioning whether the accounts of victims could be trusted and suggesting that it might be a campaign of slander. Only in 2010, with the resignation of the Odenwald School’s board, did a development begin that reached a preliminary peak in 2016 with the establishment of the Independent Commission for the Investigation of Sexual Child Abuse: the process of listening to victims was formally initiated.

This act of listening, or “Eyewitness Testimony and Doing History,” addressed in the third point of the lecture, requires the collaboration of various “chroniclers of sexual violence,” whether they are victims, activists, authors, or politicians. The narratives of violence that emerge in this way then shape history and provide the basis for the recognition of the victims.

In the fourth point, the work of the Independent Commission for the Investigation of Sexual Abuse of Children was explained in more detail. Through confidential hearings, interviews, and the review and analysis of written reports from affected individuals, the commission seeks to raise public awareness of this long-tabooed issue. Focus areas include the investigation of sexual abuse of children in the former GDR, within the Church, in sports, and particularly in the previously neglected familial context. The commission operates entirely on a voluntary basis despite an annual budget of around 1.4 million euros. The format of public hearings is of particular significance for the victims, as it allows them to give subjective meaning to their suffering—with success: since May 2006, more than 1,700 people have registered for a hearing.

Points five and six, “Transitional Justice: Questions and Connections” and “Investigation and Violence Research,” ultimately link the discussion to the ICWC, as transitional justice is a core topic in the study of war crimes trials. Issues such as the establishment of justice, the pursuit of truth, possibilities for reparation, and guarantees against recurrence are all areas that intersect with international criminal law. It should be noted that the family as a private sphere has so far received insufficient international attention; there still exists no history of the family aimed specifically at reckoning with past injustices. This issue represents one facet of the public discussion on sexual abuse of children, which, despite current attention, continues to encounter the limits of what can be thought or spoken about, often leaving the question of how “such things” are even possible unanswered. In this context, the role of women, particularly mothers, is introduced as a particularly significant taboo, which could seamlessly connect to the cases discussed at the ICWC.

Andresen concludes her lecture with the topic “Limits and Potential of Addressing Sexual Abuse of Children.” She emphasizes that such reckoning can in no way replace legal investigation; due to the lengthy process, there is a high potential for disappointment among those affected, and overcoming the dichotomy of perpetrators and victims remains challenging. Moreover, the work of the Commission is often legitimized solely by its preventive effect, whereas reckoning should also be seen as a value in itself. According to Andresen, the potential of addressing sexual abuse of children lies primarily in the attention given to the individual biographies of those affected, the growing significance of this public attention for phenomena of violence and their communication, and, finally, in the insights thus gained into the social position of the child and the relationship between violence and upbringing.