MMM Program

Historical Memory, a field that has developed in tandem with transitional justice and is deeply related to it, is the idea that efforts to collectively remember past human rights abuse and atrocity can contribute to a more democratic, peaceful, and just future. These efforts include public memorials, monuments, and museums about past human rights abuse, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide (or the social movements that sought to confront these evils), among many others. They consist of physical spaces that are places of mourning, and in some cases healing, for victims and survivors.

Public memorials are an important component of a holistic transitional justice approach. They confront the legacies of atrocity by drawing on representations of the past to teach lessons about democratic citizenship and human rights. Memoralization and memorials have become tools of human rights education in the broadest sense of the word-combining public art, civic space, and the power of memory to help build better societies in the future. In these civic spaces an ongoing dialogue and discussion on past trauma can be achieved, and diverse opinions, interests, and perspectives can be discussed. The obligation to memorialize past atrocity is also an emerging norm under international law.

The ICTJ'S Memory, Memorials and Museums (MMM) program is particularly interested in strengthening the potential of public memorials to contribute to justice by expanding democratic space and prompting constructive civic dialogue about the past. This approach focuses on the communicative and educative power of public memorials; to borrow from John Dewey, it is deeply committed to experiential learning for an informed citizenry. Drawing on recent efforts in post-authoritarian or post-conflict settings, as well as examples such as Holocaust memorialization, the program examines how memorials can be valuable components of a comprehensive transitional justice approach by helping to create a healthy and democratic dialogue about the past; promote healing and reconciliation; and strengthen historical memory about past atrocities. The Center engages in discussions with human rights organizations, victims' groups, artists and designers, and government agencies, providing advice on memorial design, consultation, and commissioning processes.

The Power of Memorials

Beginning in 2002, ICTJ and the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience joined to develop a multimedia presentation highlighting international experiences of memory and memorialization. "The Power of Memorials: Human Rights, Justice, and the Struggle for Memory" examines how memorials may be used as significant resources in societies emerging from periods of violence and repression. A visual tour of memorials around the world, the presentation explores how memorials may serve as a prism through which we can examine the past and present and prepare for the future. "The Power of Memorials" endeavors to enrich the concept of memorials, examine their potential, and discuss how that potential can be achieved through the arts, monuments, or other means.

The presentation has been turned into a workshop for practitioners and presented to interested groups in Sierra Leone, victims' groups in Chile, a city planning committee in South Africa, and the truth commission in Peru, among others. In 2005 Project Director Louis Bickford took the workshop to Bosnia, where he gave a lecture at the Center for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies at the University of Sarajevo; to Serbia and Montenegro, where he worked with the Humanitarian Law Center and the ICTJ Documents and Confronting the Past Affinity Group to consider memorialization issues; and to Kosovo, where he worked with the Kosovar Research and Documentation Institute and the UN mission.

Memory and Justice Website

MemoryandJustice.org is a project of ICTJ. It was created to provide interested parties with a forum to exchange views and learn about the emerging field of memorialization as a form of accountability for past atrocity. The website features numerous public memorials/memory-works/sites of memory/sites of conscience/museums of memory and similar accountability projects (there are many different terms used), as well as some of the most interesting intellectual debates. The site is meant to be participatory, and we encourage users to engage with the site and to send recommendations, information, and evaluations about new sites.

(Updated November 2009)

Above: Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2005. Srebrenica-Potočari Cemetery to Genocide Victims. Photo by Louis Bickford.