2. AEMJ | ARCHIDIS 2013 | Dundee 2-8-2013
Silence no longer 2
Lithuania : contested memories
Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv :
70 ans après, la mémoire apaisée
LE MONDE | 16.07.2012
Vél' d'Hiv :
M. Hollande réaffirme le rôle de la
France
LE MONDE | 23.07.2012
En 1995, Jacques Chirac y avait tenu un discours de rupture et de vérité. En
2012, François Hollande y aura tenu un discours de réaffirmation et de vigilance.
Dimanche 22 juillet, devant plusieurs centaines de personnes venues l'écouter au
square des Martyrs juifs, sur les lieux mêmes de l'ancien Vélodrome d'hiver, quai
de Grenelle à Paris, le président de la République avait au fond deux messages à
transmettre.
“Elle s'appelait Sarah”
(2010)
www.seuil.com (2013)Survey July 2012 : nearly two-thirds
of those under 35 in France did not
know about Vel d'Hiv
Spain – three years of
civil war (1936-1939) and
40 years of dictatorship
“Pacto del Olvido“ (Pact of Forgetting)
Exhumations of Civil War graves
a war of memories
The Economist
Dec 19th 2006
Spain's civil war
Painful memories
“Arguments over the true legacy of
the civil war have only just begun.”
3. AEMJ | ARCHIDIS 2013 | Dundee 2-8-2013
Silence no longer 3
Spanish military secrecy
“Investigadores exigen acceso
a los fondos de Defensa y
Exteriores. El primero cierra
su archivo y el segundo
mantiene secretos 10.000
informes.”
El Pais , July 15 2013
An appeal from the academic
world: sign the petition !
H-SPAIN Announcement June 20 2013
(…) Recommendation No. R (2000) 13 of the
Committee of Ministers of the Council of
Europe on European policies, communication
and archives, and the Convention of the
Council of Europe on Access to Public
Documents - Tromsø, June 18 2009
access to public archives is a right
Council of Europe | Recommendation No. R (2000) 13 of
the Committee of Ministers to member states on a
European policy on access to archives
Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 13 July 2000
at the 717th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies)
III. Arrangements for access to public archives
(…)
(5) Access to public archives is a right. In a political
system which respects democratic values, this right
should apply to all users regardless of their nationality,
status or function.
guidelines : access to archives (2005)
In the early 1990s, when Europe
ceased to be divided in opposing
political blocs, the Council of Europe
concluded that access to archives was
one of the key issues to be addressed
in order to fortify democracy throughout
the continent.
No R(2000)13
Tromsø (Norvège) 18.06.2009
Council of Europe | Conference of Justice Ministers
“Twelve Council of Europe member states today signed the
Convention on Access to Official Documents ( CETS n°205 ),
the first binding international legal instrument laying down a
general right of access to official documents.”
The Convention sets forth the minimum standards to be
applied in the processing of requests for access to official
documents (forms of and charges for access to official
documents), review procedure and complementary measures.
Limitations on the right of access to official documents are only
permitted in order to protect certain interests like national
security, defense or privacy.
Magdalene Asylums or The Magdalene Laundry
19 February 2013 : Irish Prime Minister issues apology
"This is a national shame, for which I say again I am deeply sorry" 1981
4. AEMJ | ARCHIDIS 2013 | Dundee 2-8-2013
Silence no longer 4
Rabbit-Proof Fence tells the true story of how three
children endured a nine week walk across Australia to
be reunited with their families.
… “the Stolen Generations” …
13 February 2008 formal apology,
led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
hidden identities
György Kutasi =
György Kusinszky
Fiume (Rijeka) 1910 –
Melbourne 1977
parents from Poland
baptized Lutheran
Olympics Berlin 1936
Golden Medal Water Polo for Hungary
Molnár István
Bródy György
Brandy Jenő
Halassy Olivér (Haltmayer Olivér)
Homonnai Márton (Hlavacsek Márton)
Bozsi Mihály
Kutasy György
Hazai Kálmán
Sárkány Miklós
Tarics Sándor
Németh János
in search of hidden truths
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers.
United Nations (1948)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art 19
www.unesco.org/webworld/en/foi
Council of Europe (1950)
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), art 10
ECHR case-law 2009
… ‘it is difficult to derive from the Convention a general right
of access to administrative data and documents’.
(…)
Nevertheless, the Court has recently advanced towards a
broader interpretation of the notion of ‘freedom to receive
information’ and thereby towards the recognition of a right of
access to information.
The Prague Declaration
The Prague Declaration on European Conscience and
Communism - signed on 3 June 2008 - is a declaration
initiated by the Czech government and signed by prominent
European politicians, former political prisoners and historians,
among them Václav Havel and Joachim Gauck, which called
for “Europe-wide condemnation of, and education about, the
crimes of communism.”
(…)
14 “ensuring a clear international legal framework regarding a
free and unrestricted access to the Archives containing the
information on the crimes of Communism”
5. AEMJ | ARCHIDIS 2013 | Dundee 2-8-2013
Silence no longer 5
German Roots.
My Silesian family
the Quintana report (1995)
Collective rights
• the right of peoples to choose their own path to political
transition;
• the right of people to the integrity of their written memory;
• the right to truth (i.e. information on what actually happened);
• the right to identify those responsible for crimes against
human rights.
the Quintana report (1995)
Individual rights
• the right to discover the fate of the disappeared;
• the right to know what information on individuals is held;
• the right to research (i.e. access to the archives);
• the right to amnesty for victims;
• the right to compensation and reparation;
• the right of restitution of confiscated goods.
revised in 2008
the Quintana report (2008)
Individual rights
• the right to exoneration and rehabilitation;
• the right to know the whereabouts of those family
members who disappeared during the period of
repression;
• the right to know of the existence of information on anyone
kept in the archives of the repression;
• the right to historical and scientific investigation;
• the right to compensation or reparation for damages
suffered by the victims of the repression;
• the right to restitution of confiscated property;
