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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Upcoming International Colloquium: “A Museum for Guantánamo?: How Sites of Conscience can stimulate public awareness on detention and migration in a new political era” – Memphis, USA
MEMORY ISSUES IN THE NEWS
Reconciliation Report Triggers Controversy in Northern Ireland
German Support for Peruvian Museum of Memory Rejected
New Obstacles to Preserving Bhopal’s Site of Industrial and Environmental Calamity
FEATURED PROGRAMMES
New Programmes from the Sites of Conscience Project Support Fund:
Youth Celebrate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Santiago, Chile
Annual Freedom Festival: Students Demand Trial for Crimes against Humanity – Dhaka, Bangladesh
Travelling Exhibition “Imágenes para la Memoria” Opens in La Plata – La Plata, Argentina
EXCHANGING SITES OF CONSCIENCE PRACTICES: CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS
Sites of Conscience Impact Assessment Project Begins – Dhaka, Bangladesh
Villa Grimaldi Shares Expertise at the “Active Preservation of Memory” Workshop at Former Detention Centre in Agdz – Agdz, Morocco
COMING UP:
European Sites of Conscience Workshop – Berlin, Germany
Asian Sites of Conscience Workshop – Gwangju, South Korea
International Sites of Conscience Summit (June 24 – 30, 2009) – Memphis, USA
First Workshop of Civil Rights Museums to Develop Programmes around Immigration – Memphis, USA
RESOURCES AND PUBLICATIONS
Public Access to Founding Member of “Madres de Plaza de Maya de la Plata’s” Personal Archive on State Terrorism – La Plata, Argentina
NEW INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS
Centro Cultural por la Memoria de Trelew (Rawson, Argentina)
Friends of Du Bois Homesite (Amherst, USA)
Memòrial Democràtic (Barcelona, Spain)
Preserve Pennhurst Alliance (Berwyn, USA)
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
Upcoming International Colloquium: “A Museum for Guantánamo?: How Sites of Conscience can stimulate public awareness on detention and migration in a new political era” – Memphis, USA
From June 26-28, the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and the National Civil Rights Museum are hosting an international colloquium “A Museum for Guantánamo?: How Sites of Conscience can stimulate public awareness on detention and migration in a new political era”. The colloquium will bring together international leaders in both human rights and heritage at the Lorraine Motel – site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., now the National Civil Rights Museum – to develop strategies for how museums in diverse contexts can foster ongoing civic participation in key civil rights and civil liberties issues in the post-Bush era. President Barack Obama’s closure of Guantánamo symbolizes a new policy approach to migration and detention. Yet in communities across the US and around the world, public debate about the place and rights of immigrants and the use of torture is still evolving. And the recent international groundswell of civic participation threatens to lose momentum and focus.
Sites of Conscience are dedicated to serving as new public spaces for raising awareness and involvement in these issues over the long term, recognizing that a public culture of democracy and human rights is critical for the success of any policy change in the new political era. “A Museum for Guantánamo?” will convene a select group of leaders experienced in saving and interpreting places that remember past struggles over migration, detention, and torture, and those working to address these issues in the present.
The opening plenary of the colloquium addressed by Doudou Diène, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and former UNESCO Director of the Division of Intercultural Projects (currently Division of Intercultural Dialogue), will provide a framework for how Sites of Conscience in different contexts can inspire civic participation in pressing human rights issues today. The opening plenary will be followed by two public panels on the themes of migration, detention and torture which will lead into two working sessions among directors of Sites of Conscience and advocates working to reframe current public debates on migration and protect civil liberties today. The working groups will develop specific strategies for activating Sites of Conscience as effective forces for reframing local and international debate and grass roots engagement in migration, detention, and torture in a variety of contexts. For more information about the colloquium, please visit: http://www.sitesofconscience.org/activities/conferences/guantanamo/ or contact coalition@sitesofconscience.org.
Reconciliation Report Triggers Controversy in Northern Ireland
Heated scenes at the unveiling of the highly-anticipated report on Reconciliation from the conflict in Northern Ireland in January demonstrated the challenges that the country faces in dealing with its difficult past. The Consultative Group on the Past, chaired by Lord Eames, former head of the Church of Ireland, and Denis Bradley, a former Catholic priest, drafted the report to provide recommendations for Northern Ireland to address the legacy of “the Troubles”, the 30 years of sectarian violence that left over 3,000 people dead. One proposal in the report to provide a “recognition payment” for families of the dead sparked a public outcry as some families perceived the “recognition payment” as equating perpetrators of violence with innocent victims. Following public uproar, the government rejected the payment proposal, but public reflection on the difficult task of “dealing with the past in order to move forward” continues. The report advises that memorializing the Troubles through shared memorials between groups that have been in opposition could be a cause for divisiveness. No recommendations on the future of sites such as the Long Kesh/Maze prison, an icon of the Troubles, were put forward, though earlier plans to develop Long Kesh/Maze into a national sports stadium have now been abandoned. Recent instances of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland have rekindled fears of a return of the Troubles, reminding the country that peace requires careful and consistent processes with participation from every sector of society.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7847479.stm
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/01/28/northern.ireland.troubles.report/
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1874821,00.html
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0131/1232923379251.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/26/northern-ireland-troubles-payouts
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/we-can-never-return-to-nightmare-of-troubles-14226897.html
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/we-can-never-return-to-nightmare-of-troubles-14226897.html
German Support for Peruvian Museum of Memory Rejected
The Peruvian government has come under fire for rejecting a $2m (£1.4m) donation from Germany to build a museum for the nearly 70,000 victims of Peru’s civil conflict lasting from 1980 to 2000. The proposal has re-opened wounds among those in Peru with opposing views on whether and how this history should be remembered. The Peruvian government argues that the money would be better spent tackling poverty and hunger and that a Museum of Memory could fuel conflicts in Peru rather than resolve them. Human rights groups, artists, intellectuals and the public have reacted sharply, stating that the government’s position is indicative of its poor understanding of the “historical tasks Peru faces in building a true democracy”. They view the Museum of Memory as “an opportunity to initiate a sincere reconciliation process in Peru”. Faced with public displeasure, the Prime Minister Yehude Simon has suggested the money go towards reparations for victims, not a museum, but this idea has done little to stem the outpour of criticism. Author Mario Vargas Llosa, for instance, described the government’s refusal as an indication of its intolerance and ignorance and stressed the importance of museums as institutions that both educate and heal.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45964
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7916203.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/misc/newsid_7917000/7917663.stm
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/opinion/Peru/necesita/museos/elpepuint/20090308elpepiopi_13/Tes
http://www.terra.com.pe/noticias/articulo/html/act1671812.htm
New Obstacles to Preserving Bhopal’s Site of Industrial and Environmental Calamity
In December 1984, lethal gases spewed out of the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, causing one the world’s worst industrial disasters. The gas leak killed more than 25,000 people and has left countless others with chronic illnesses that persist among future generations. For years, survivor groups have been campaigning for justice, demanding that the Union Carbide Corporation accepts responsibility and provides victims and their families with compensation and medical relief. These groups have also urged the Indian government to secure the thousands of tonnes of buried waste that continue to spread poisonous chemicals. Twenty-five years after the event, the government has now announced that it will remove the remaining waste, but, citing public health reasons, it has threatened to demolish the factory. Five major survivor groups have joined forces to prevent this dismantlement, appealing to UNESCO to restore and preserve the factory as a site of industrial and environmental heritage. They recognise that for many the factory site serves as a reminder of the tragedy and believe that the site could play a role in healing and achieving social justice, stating, “as valuable as the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan, the site can be an icon of our joint responsibility for the environment and for the future, teaching the world and future generations of the tragedy to ensure there will never be another Bhopal.”
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Energy/Oil–Gas/Union-Carbide-plant-must-be-declared-Industrial-Heritage-NGOs/articleshow/4223213.cms
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bhopal-gas-tragedy-survivors-seek-heritage-status-for-site/428937/
http://www.zeenews.com/nation/2009-03-04/512424news.html
http://www.in.com/news/view360-current-affairs-60454-1.html
New Programmes from the Sites of Conscience Project Support Fund
(February 2009)
The Coalition’s Sites of Conscience Project Support Fund provides financial and technical support for member sites to develop projects that use their histories to open dialogue on a pressing concern facing their communities today. Below is a list of projects the Fund is supporting from February 2009 to January 2010.
Engaging the Process of Reconciliation, Forgiveness and Peaceful Co-Existence – Freetown, Sierra Leone
Established in 1996, Campaign for Good Governance (CGG) is one of Sierra Leone’s oldest local non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Through advocacy, capacity building, and civic education, CGG aims to increase citizens’ participation in governance in order to build a more democratic state with a well informed civil population.
The Sites of Conscience Project Support Fund supports CGG’s multifaceted programme engaging people from different political, social, and cultural backgrounds in Sierra Leone in constructive dialogue on peace, forgiveness, reconciliation and matters of regional divide. Reconciliation remains a challenge in Sierra Leone. Nine years of civil war left tens of thousands people dead and more than 2 million Sierra Leoneans displaced. Issues linked to causing the conflict in 1991, such as discrimination, marginalization and regional tensions linger in society today. As part of a broader national effort to consolidate peace, strengthen democracy and foster reconciliation among Sierra Leoneans, CGG’s programme seeks to follow up on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations on symbolic reparations and promote reconciliation and peaceful coexistence through constructive dialogue, using the power of sites of memory.
CGG will bring together civil society organizations and relevant state actors in a one-day workshop to discuss and strategize about the role of Sites of Conscience in post-conflict Sierra Leone. Following this, CGG will host a two-day dialogue with the local community around reconciliation and forgiveness at a mass grave site in the town of Gbendembu. Additionally, participants will visit the Old Fourah Bay College Building – the oldest institution in West Africa – to examine the importance of this site in the current socio-economic and political climate and share strategies on preserving, developing and interpreting the site. Dialogues at the two sites will serve as examples of how places of memory can serve as places for healing, reconciliation and building democracy.
Shaping a Comprehensive Story of Historical and Contemporary Immigration Experiences – Chicago, United States
The Chicago Cultural Alliance (CCA) is a consortium of 25 community-based ethnic museums, cultural centres, and historical societies in Chicago, USA. CCA seeks to effect social change and public understanding of cultural diversity through the first voice perspective of community members. By leveraging partnerships between member organizations and major institutions, CAA increases the visibility and impact of Chicago’s ethnic assets.
The Sites of Conscience Project Support Fund supports CCA’s pilot programme aimed at developing immigration dialogue programmes in four community-based ethnic museums and cultural centres in metropolitan Chicago: the Cambodian American Heritage Museum & Killing Fields Memorial (CAHM), the Polish Museum of America (PMA), the Swedish American Museum Center (SAMAC), and the Chicago Japanese American Historical Society (CJAHS).
During this pilot programme, each institution will receive training on dialogue facilitation and then bring together community members with historical and contemporary experiences of and different perspectives on immigration. Through these community dialogue sessions CCA hopes to learn how to best engage the public in dialogue and will incorporate their learning into concrete methodologies and formats for productive dialogue. The resulting dialogue programme design will be implemented at the four participating institutions, and will serve as a model for all CCA member organizations.
Ultimately, the pilot will lead to dialogue programmes at all CCA member organizations, with the goal of shaping a more comprehensive understanding of the multiple waves of immigration and exploring how previous immigrants’ experiences compare with immigration issues in Chicago today.
Addressing Caricatures and Stereotypes of Immigration – San Diego, United States
Opened to the public on June 20 2008, the New Americans Museum is housed in San Diego’s historic Naval Training Center (NTC).NTC closed in 1997 after 70 years as a military base and currently functions as a cultural and business centre in the city. Within this historic space, the New Americans Museum provides inspiring educational and cultural programmes and activities around San Diego’s diverse immigrant experiences and aims to be a catalyst to celebrate America’s past and promise.
Located on the border of the United States and Mexico and sharing a bi-national metropolitan area, San Diego has been home to some of the most aggressive anti-immigrant groups in the U.S. during the past few years, and is an example of the wave of anti-immigrant propaganda sweeping the country.
The Sites of Conscience Project Support Fund supports the New Americans Museum in developing and implementing a dialogue programme that engages high school students in conversations about immigration issues in their community. With this programme the New Americans Museum hopes to address misconceptions of immigration and combat negative stereotypes and anti-immigrant propaganda in San Diego.
The Project will invite four to eight high school classes (grades 9th through 12th) to two concurrent exhibitions, Immigration and Caricature: Ethnic Images from the Appel Collection and A Community Between Two Worlds: Arab-Americans in Greater Detroit. After visiting these exhibits the students will discuss images and caricatures of immigrants in the past and explore their own assumptions and stereotypes of immigrants today. Working with schools in areas known for their diverse student populations, the programme will reach out to different ethnic and racial groups in order to build dialogue across difference and provide participants with a more comprehensive picture of immigration in San Diego informed by individuals’ experiences and encounters with each other.
Youth Celebrate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Santiago, Chile
(December 2008)
On December 13, Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi (Villa Grimaldi Peace Park) celebrated the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Villa Grimaldi Peace Park strives to preserve the historical memory of Villa Grimaldi, an old home converted into a centre of torture and detention during 17 years of military dictatorship in Chile. Through its programmes and activities, Villa Grimaldi raises awareness of torture and detention, connects the site’s history with pressing social concerns today and aims to promote a culture of human rights.
At the 60th anniversary celebration, students, government officials, human rights organizations and former detainees at Villa Grimaldi, including Angela Jeria, mother of Chilean President Michele Bachelet and leader of the “Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos” (Relatives of Disappeared Persons) reaffirmed the value of the Universal Human Rights Declaration and stressed the importance of recovering and maintaining Chile‘s historical memory as a path towards preventing future human rights abuses.
During the event, Villa Grimaldi discussed the park’s history as a clandestine detention centre and initiated dialogue on discrimination, torture and detention with students. Via educational materials provided by the European Union they discussed how information, dialogue and civil activism can address and even prevent torture from taking place with impunity. The dialogue promoted reflection on political crimes in Chile and around the world, but also discussed the students’ personal experiences with discrimination and bullying at school.
At the celebration, former detainees also unveiled a restored historic staircase from the original buildings of Villa Grimaldi. In an attempt to destroy all evidence of their crimes, “Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional” (DINA), the Chilean secret police during Pinochet’s dictatorship demolished Villa Grimaldi’s buildings during the last days of the military dictatorship and very few original structures remained. Last year, ruins of an original staircase were discovered. An extensive excavation project recovered the stairs which are the only remains of the house that functioned as DINA’s administrative office. At the celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, former detainees cut the cords officially opening the staircase to the public as a witness to verify the testimonies of several torture victims.
Annual Freedom Festival: Students Demand Trial for Crimes against Humanity – Dhaka, Bangladesh
(January 2009)
The Liberation War Museum remembers the 1971 struggle for Bangladesh’s independence and in particular, the genocide of more than three million Bengalis during the Liberation War. The museum connects the history of struggle for democracy to contemporary human right abuses, fundamentalism and religious intolerance, engaging local and international audiences in dialogue on the legacies of the conflict. The museum is also advocating for the trial of the perpetrators of the genocide, including engaging young people in the effort to achieve justice today.
Each year, the Liberation War Museum gathers students who have participated in its educational and outreach programmes at a Freedom Festival, where the students have the opportunity to interact with government officials, public leaders, and cultural personalities and share their personal ideas of freedom. Through popular culture, song, and dance, the Freedom Festival, held in January this year, remembered the Bangladeshi genocide of 1971 and created opportunities for the nearly 10,000 students who participated in the festival to examine what freedom means today. The activities included a ceremony where the students vowed to carry the “spirit of freedom” forward; one of their efforts to do so was presenting a charter demanding trials for the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Liberation War of Bangladesh, to the State Minister for the Liberation War at the Freedom Festival. Signed by more than 27,000 youth, the charter was created by the Liberation War Museum as a concrete action young people could take to help achieve justice today. The events, including the students’ advocacy efforts generated extensive media exposure, including coverage by TV Channel ATN, and The Daily Star newspaper, helping to create momentum for the Liberation War Museum’s campaign for justice.
Travelling Exhibition “Imágenes para la Memoria” Opens in La Plata – La Plata, Argentina
(March 2009)
Memoria Abierta is a coordinated effort of five human rights organizations that have come together to contribute to the collective memory of State terrorism in Argentina. To fulfil its mission, Memoria Abierta develops public initiatives, tools and educational resources to facilitate intergenerational communication.
In 2006, Memoria Abierta created the travelling exhibition “Imágenes para la Memoria” (Images for Memory) to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Argentina’s last coup d’état. Since opening, the exhibit has travelled to 14 locations in 10 cities, in Argentina, South Africa and Chile. “Images for Memory” publicly shares testimonies, press materials, photographs and other relevant documents to shed light on and facilitate dialogue about the events of 30 years ago and their lingering effects in the present. It also trains students as guides to use the exhibit as an opportunity for inter-generational discussion on historical contemporary issues.
On March 12, “Imágenes para la Memoria” was inaugurated in La Plata, capital city of Buenos Aires province in Argentina. La Plata is a university town that was home to a large student population active in voicing dissent against the State’s repressive activities and who thus suffered particularly hard during the dictatorship. Today, the city is still an active centre of civic participation which makes it an especially relevant host for “Imágenes para la Memoria”. One of the city’s well-known lawyers, active in several trials on human rights violations committed during the last military dictatorship, participated in training young volunteers to be guides for the exhibition. Twenty-eight volunteers in La Plata completed the training and are now carrying out guided tours for schoolchildren visiting from the city and surrounding areas.
Sites of Conscience Impact Assessment Project Begins – Dhaka, Bangladesh
(January 2009)
In January the Liberation War Museum participated in the International Coalition’s Impact Assessment Project. While memorialization programmes are increasingly recognized as crucial to democracy-building, tools and guidelines for assessing their impact are often lacking. With the Impact Assessment Project, the Coalition is developing a set of evaluation tools to measure the broader, long-term impact of memorialization programmes of Sites of Conscience and their active role in contributing to social reconstruction. Along with Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi and the Monte Sole Peace School, the Liberation War Museum participated in the first phase of the Coalition’s Impact Assessment Project, piloting tools to evaluate its youth and intergenerational programmes, analyzing both the immediate impact as well as the programmes’ potential to inspire long-term involvement fromthe participants.
The project evaluates the Liberation War Museum’s schools’ outreach programme that uses a Mobile Museum Bus, travelling to rural schoolyards across the country to increase outreach to students outside Dhaka. Through this travelling exhibit, education facilitators and museum’s trustees reach out to primary and secondary schools to raise understanding of the Liberation War and its legacy today and to discuss potential roles for youth in addressing contemporary religious and ethnic tensions through nonviolent means.
After having trained on utilizing the evaluation tools, including visitors’ surveys, interview guides, and focus group guides, the Liberation War Museum evaluated their schools’ outreach programme, collecting feedback about the programme. The Liberation War Museum, alongside Villa Grimaldi and Monte Sole Peace School, will conclude the evaluation process by April 2009. The International Coalition will share the Impact Assessment tools with all its members after the project has reached its conclusion later in 2009.
Villa Grimaldi Shares Expertise at the “Active Preservation of Memory” Workshop at Former Detention Centre in Agdz – Agdz, Morocco
(January 2009)
On January 31, several national and international NGOs gathered at a workshop in Agdz, a former secret detention centre in Morocco, to plan how to activate former detention centres into spaces for healing, civic engagement and economic development. The workshop “Active Preservation of Memory” was organized by the Advisory Council on Human Rights, the Moroccan State’s official human rights institution and the International Center for Transitional Justice. Margarita Romero, Vice-President of Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi (Santiago, Chile), was invited to participate in the workshop to share her experiences in developing Site of Conscience Villa Grimaldi as one model of activating places of memory.
Agdz, an ancient fort located in a desert in the south of Morocco served as a detention centre during a 30-year period of state repression lasting until the early 1990’s. The military occupied the Agdz fort in 1976 and used it as a detention centre until 1982. Arriving from detention centres in Rabat and other cities, “disappeared” political prisoners were detained and tortured in Agdz before being transported to other detention centres. Approximately 400 political prisoners passed through Agdz and an estimated 32 people died in the detention centre and are buried in a cemetery close by (see picture). In 1999, associations of ex-prisoners and survivors formed the “Moroccan Forum for Truth and Justice”, the first group dedicated to reclaiming Agdz and other former detention centres as “living” sites of memory. The Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER), Morocco’s human rights and truth commission created in 2004, legitimized the Forum’s actions, making recommendations on the recovery and conversion of former illegal detention centres into sites of memory.
The workshop “Active Preservation of Memory”, included international perspectives on how Agdz and other former detention sites can function as living places of memory, involving the community in social and economic questions of today and as centres for education contributing towards building democracy in Morocco. At the workshop, Margarita Romero shared the experiences of developing Corporacíon Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi into a Site of Conscience and described how Sites of Conscience can be centres for civic engagement, connecting the site’s history with current issues through open dialogue. The exchange created new conversation and learning between memory activists in Morocco and the International Sites of Conscience movement, and discussed future opportunities for collaboration.
Click here to read read an interview with Margarita about her experience at Agdz and her perspective on the future of the Agdz site, including the role of the International Coalition.
COMING UP:
European Sites of Conscience Workshop – Berlin, Germany
(January 2009)
At a time of rising concern over social exclusion, migration, xenophobia, and discrimination throughout Europe, sites of memory are integral to promoting tolerance and public dialogue on the meanings and practice of citizenship, human rights, and reconciliation.
From May 14-17, the House of the Wannsee Conference and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience will bring together a core group of Sites of Conscience leaders from throughout Europe interested in working together to develop new programmes that foster public dialogue on key human rights issues and help young people decipher propaganda and address racist violence. The House of the Wannsee Conference was used between 1941 and 1945 as a guest house for the SS. It was the site of a meeting where high-ranking civil servants and SS-officers discussed how to cooperate on the planned deportation and murder of all European Jews. Workshop participants will take part in and analyze educational programmes at the House of the Wannsee Conference; present, critique, and revise their own programme designs to be implemented at their sites; and identify joint projects that promote dialogue and understanding of social exclusion, xenophobia, and violent conflict.
Potential participating museums include Le Bois Du Cazier, Belgium; Direccio General de la Memorial Democrática, Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain; Gedenkstätte Hadamar, Germany; Gernika Peace Museum, Spain; Monte Sole Peace School, Italy; Museo Diffuso della Resistenza, della Deportazione della Guerra, dei Diritti e della Libertà, Italy; Museum of Free Derry, Northern Ireland; Senter for studier av Holocaust og livssynsminoriteter (HL-senteret), Norway; Terezín Memorial, Czech Republic; and
The Workhouse, England.
For more information on the European Sites of Conscience Workshop, please contact the International Coalition’s Programmes Manager, Silvia Fernandez at sfernandez@sitesofconscience.org
Asian Sites of Conscience Workshop – Gwangju, South Korea
(May 2008)
The Liberation War Museum and the May 18 Memorial Foundation in Gwangju, South Korea will host the 4th Asian Sites of Conscience regional workshop from May 15-18. The May 18 Foundation honours the memory of the victims of the massacre in Gwangju in May 1980, when the military authorities brutally suppressed a citizens’ democratic uprising which killed an estimated 165 people, with another 65 missing and presumed dead.
The regional workshop will bring together participants to discuss how sites of both conflict and harmony can inspire ethnic and religious pluralism today and share strategies on developing public programmes around these issues. The May 18 Memorial Foundation will demonstrate how they commemorate the struggle for democracy, work with other Asian NGOs around building democracy and engage new audiences in their region. The workshop will also focus on the importance of the ongoing War Crime Trials in Cambodia, and the preparatory work for a similar quest for justice in Bangladesh. The Liberation War Museum advocates for the trial of the perpetrators of the genocide in Bangladesh and works to engage young people in the effort to achieve justice today. Following the workshop, members of the network will have the opportunity to participate in the May 18 Memorial Foundation’s annual International Peace Forum, where the foundation aims to strengthen international solidarity between domestic and foreign activists working for democracy, human rights and peace.
Members of the Asian Sites of Conscience Network from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Iraq, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand will participate in the meeting.
International Sites of Conscience Summit (June 24 – 30, 2009) – Memphis, USA
(June 2009)
The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and the National Civil Rights Museum will host the annual international summit of Sites of Conscience leaders from around the world from June 24-30, in Memphis, TN, USA. Coming to the United States from Argentina, Bangladesh, Chile, Czech Republic, Italy, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, UK and elsewhere, representatives of Sites of Conscience will work together to strengthen the practices of Sites of Conscience and develop approaches to evaluating Sites of Conscience programmes.
The National Civil Rights Museum, located at the Lorraine Motel, the site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., traces the African American civil rights movement from the earliest days of slavery, examines the effect of racism in American society, and considers issues of poverty and economic and social injustice today. Through its collections, exhibitions, and educational programmes, the museum connects the legacy of the civil rights movement with current issues to inspire visitors to participate in civil and human rights efforts globally.
Summit participants will observe and evaluate the National Civil Rights Museum’s education and public programmes, share each site’s programme models, discuss the regional activities that the Coalition’s Regional Coordinators are engaged in and work together to address questions they face as Sites of Conscience.
First Workshop of Civil Rights Museums to Develop Programmes around Immigration – Memphis, USA
(June 2009)
On June 25, the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and the National Civil Rights Museum are hosting the first workshop for representatives of civil rights sites and immigration advocacy groups from the South Eastern United States to identify common challenges and opportunities for civil rights museums to become new spaces for dialogue and collaboration between immigrants and African Americans.
Civil rights museums in the United States are in a unique position to use their historic legacy of protest and action to inspire discussion on the new shape of civil rights and civil liberties in the U.S. and around the world. Welcoming millions of people each year, museums like the National Civil Rights Museum have established themselves as trusted sources of information, safe community spaces for African Americans, and in some cases, spaces for addressing contemporary racism and tensions between blacks and whites. Now, these museums find themselves in cities transformed by immigration. For instance, Charlotte, North Carolina, home of the Levine Museum of the New South, has experienced a 600% growth in Latino immigration in the last decade alone. Their communities have no public memory or identity as places of cultural change that integrate newcomers. These transformations have created new tensions as well as new opportunities for carrying on the legacy of the civil rights movement today.
Recognizing this, the International Coalition is developing a project with civil rights museums across the Southeastern U.S. to explore programming aimed at building bridges across divided communities of immigrants and longer-rooted Americans of all races. Partnerships between civil rights museums and immigration advocates can help to build a more diverse base of support for more humane immigration policies in the U.S. Perspectives on how immigrants have shaped and strengthened American communities in the past, and how they faced civil rights abuse in different ways, can help receiving communities feel more welcoming and supportive of the integration of new immigrants. In turn, stories of past struggles for civil rights by African Americans and all Americans can inspire new arrivals to organize for their own visions of change.
The workshop on June 25 will bring together a pilot group of civil rights museums and immigration advocates to connect their resources and develop strategies for civil rights museums to design preliminary programmes to foster new dialogue and collective action around immigration.
Memoria Abierta´s mission is to preserve the memory of the human rights violations perpetrated by the military dictatorship and their longstanding effects throughout Argentine society. To fulfil this mission they work to recover, catalogue, and disseminate information to make it available for public use.
Within this context, Memoria Abierta has been working to organize and publicize Adelina Dematti de Alaye´s personal archive. Adelina Dematti de Alaye is a founding member of “Madres de Plaza de Mayo de La Plata” (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo from La Plata), a local non-governmental organization of mothers united by the tragedy of the forced disappearance of their children during the military dictatorship. Adelina has been actively involved in human rights issues since the disappearance of her son Carlos in April 1977 and is currently working as Undersecretary of Human Rights of La Plata, capital city of Buenos Aires Province.
Adelina’s archive, included in UNESCO´s Memory of the World Programme, is an extensive resource for information on State terrorism in Argentina. It offers valuable details on the actions and efforts of civil society and it also reflects Adelina’s personal struggle providing insight into the individual impact of State terrorism, which is often difficult to convey.
Adelina collaborated with Memoria Abierta to organize her personal archive and the documents are now housed in the “Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires” (Historical Archive of Buenos Aires Province) where they are open for public consultation. Memoria Abierta’s website offers a description of the archives and a selection of digitized documents.
In August 1972, during the military dictatorship of General Alejandro A. Lanusse, 25 political prisoners escaped from the Penitentiary in Rawson, the capital of Chubut province in Argentina, with the intention of flying to Chile. Only six managed to flee the country, while the remaining 19 were recaptured and transferred via the Trelew airport to Almirante Zar naval air station where 16 of them were executed. The Cultural Center of Memory opened in 2007 and is located in the renovated buildings of the old airport in Trelew. The centre has created a site of living memory that documents the massacre and hosts various temporary exhibitions focused around the themes of truth and justice in society. For more information, please visit http://www.chubut.gov.ar/
Friends of Du Bois Homesite (Amherst, USA)
Friends of the Du Bois Homesite is a community-based organization working with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to support the restoration, maintenance, stewardship and awareness of the W. E. B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite as a public memorial to the Great Barrington native who became a leading scholar and activist in the civil rights movement in the United States and around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.duboishomesite.org/.
Memòrial Democràtic (Barcelona, Spain)
By recovering formerly repressed histories and voices, Memorial Democrátic aims to defend the Catalan citizens’ “right to remember”. The institution works to research, preserve, and publicize the history of the period 1931-1981, including the democratic struggle against fascism during the Spanish Civil War, Franco’s regime, the citizens’ fight for democracy against the dictatorship, and the transition to democracy. Memorial Democràtic is a place of commemoration and serves as an information and resource centre for the Catalan government, other public administrations, and the civil society in their policies and initiatives to recover and share historic memories of the fight for democracy. The institution organizes traveling exhibitions, conferences and debates and publishes books for teachers and researchers, as well as pedagogical tools on how to engage students in recovering memory. Memorial Democràtic is dedicated to preserving historic sites and provides technical assistance and financial support to historic research and various memory projects. It aims to create a series of museums, sites, and visitor centres where the public can gather a comprehensive understanding of Catalonia’s recent history.
For more information, please visit www.gencat.cat/memorialdemocratic.
Preserve Pennhurst Alliance (Berwyn, USA)
From the early 20th century on, for several decades, abuse and neglect of persons with disabilities at the Pennhurst State School and Hospital violated fundamental notions of human dignity. Landmark litigation arising from Pennhurst in the 60′s and 70′s heralded the end of institutionalization of the disabled and raised questions on the ongoing challenge to recognize the destructive tendency to dehumanize those perceived as “the other”. As the epicentre of a human rights movement that knows neither racial, nor ethnic, nor socio-cultural bounds, Preserve Pennhurst Alliance now seeks to restore the historic campus, as a centre of conscience and memory, learning and growth. The proposed re-use will incorporate a museum, archive and library, as well as a conference and research centre. Persons with disabilities will be given preference for jobs associated with restoring and re-using the site. For more information, please visit http://www.preservepennhurst.com/.
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is located on the site of a former high school used as the Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng; out of this number, there are only seven known survivors. The recently-convened War Crimes Tribunal is prosecuting senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, including Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, the former director of the Tuol Sleng prison. The buildings at Tuol Sleng are preserved as they were left when the Khmer Rouge were driven out in 1979. The regime kept extensive records, including thousands of photographs. Several rooms of the museum are lined, floor to ceiling, with black and white photographs of the prisoners who passed through the prison. The museum is open to the public and visited by many Cambodian school children and tourists. For more information, please contact: toulslengmuseum@online.com.kh
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