"Aller Simple" - Corporate Accountability for Mass Atrocity: The Case of the French National Railways (SNCF)
La Chaire Katharine A. Pearson Chair en soci茅t茅 civile et politiques publiques accueille la professeure Sarah Federman, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Baltimore, pour une pr茅sentation sur son projet de recherche en cours sur la SNCF et la responsabilit茅 sociale de cette entreprise quant 脿 l'Holocauste.
搁茅蝉耻尘茅
[En anglais seulement] Transitional justice employs a variety of mechanisms, including compensation, apologies, trials, commemoration, and truth seeking to guide societies in the aftermath of massive human rights violations. The perpetrators are most often individuals, rebel groups, and government institutions.
More infrequently, however, do we consider how to address market actors. A study of the decades-long conflict over the French National Railways' (SNCF- Soci茅t茅 nationale des chemins de fer fran莽ais) role in the Holocaust provides an opportunity to consider what happens when聽businesses are聽involved. The SNCF had a role in transporting over 75,000 Jewish deportees and others towards death camps during World War II. After fifty-years of the SNCF storying itself as a hero in the resistance, survivors began to challenge, sue, and boycott the company - saying it needed to acknowledge its role in the Holocaust as well.聽While聽debates began in France, they spilled over into the United States and worked to roadblock the company's efforts to do business there up through 2017. The company responded by engaging in many transitional justice practices with mixed聽results. The company's聽overlapping identities of victim, perpetrator, and hero raise complicated issues at the intersection of corporate social聽responsibility and mass聽atrocity.聽
This research is based on over 120 interviews (over 80 with survivors) and pro bono work with the U.S. State Department and other groups.聽
La conf茅renci猫re
[En anglais seulement] Sarah Federman is Assistant Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Baltimore. She specializes in the role of language in conflict, post-conflict contexts and the role of market actors in mass atrocity. She took up her position at University of Baltimore in 2017聽after completing her doctorate at George Mason University鈥檚 School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Federman has also taught courses at SciencesPo Lille, Grinnell College, and the University of Malta.
Considering the intersection of corporate behavior and conflict draws on Federman鈥檚 decade-long career as a senior advertising executive. Federman negotiated with companies throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Some of the companies with whom she met include; Google, NFL, Viacom, Expedia, Discovery and most of the world鈥檚 largest advertising agencies.聽
