Introduction

In the last few decades, numerous liberal democratic states have offered public apologies for past violations of human rights1. A gesture formerly associated with weakness is nowadays perceived as a marker of moral strength.2 Crimes such as enslavement, displacement, violation of treaties, war crimes, ethnic discrimination, cultural disruption and many other types of human rights abuses have led to public expressions of regret.3 Whereas politicians have traditionally been unwilling, or at least hesitant, to offer apologies for historical injustices at the hands of the state, we are currently witnessing a veritable wave of apologies around the world. Academic research has rapidly picked up on these changes, so much so that the nature of state apologies has become a subject of inquiry for a number of key disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, including philosophy, political science, theology, history and sociology.4