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“Memory, History and Archives”

As part of the follow-up of recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) relating to the preservation of the history of archives and memory and in order to establish a program of support by the European Union for these recommendations, the Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH) organized a third seminar, on July 3, 2009, under the theme “Memory, History and Archives”. The organization of this seminar followed two previous meetings on “teaching the history of the current time” and “preservation and modernization of national archives”.

The seminar, attended by several stakeholders aimed to compare the IER approaches to history and memory, and those of local stakeholders, to support the development of local projects through academic contribution while preserving the regional features, and to include the preservation of places of memory and the writing of local history in the curriculum, in a comprehensive approach, which would help to give rise to a Moroccan model through the consideration of various regional features and national shared specificities.

The proceedings of this meeting focused on three issues: “history and memory”, “writing of local history”, and “archives and documentation at the local level”

In this context Mr. Ahmed Herzenni, CCDH President, said that concrete projects should be developed to revive, positively, the memory and avoid some negative aspects of the past in Morocco. He also recalled that the CCDH was working with the Rabat Faculty of Arts and Humanities on the creation of a Master’s on "current history" and prompted the launch of research projects on this theme in conjunction with the signing of an agreement with the European Union in order to support its efforts in memory, history and archives.

Mr. Brahim Boutaleb, professor of contemporary history and former member of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER), stressed the importance of distinguishing between memory and history in the sense that memory is a feeling with an activism character, while history is a scientific logic. Memory has become a topical issue in Morocco, imposed by the objective action of the IER to revive past human rights abuses, said Boutaleb.

It is worth mentioning that the Working Group on History and Memory, set up by the CCDH, has made several achievements in the field by organizing various regional meetings on memory and how to deal with old secret detention centers.

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