The preliminary program is now available for the Archives Without Borders international congress announced some months ago. Co-hosted by VVBAD, the Flemish association for archivists and librarians, and KVAN, the Dutch association for archivists, the meeting will be held August 30 and 31, 2010 in the Peace Palace in The Hague, The Netherlands. According to the conference website:
“Good archives and records management practices are a condition for ensuring continuity, efficiency and transparency of public and private services and stakeholder accountability. The Congress will focus on the importance of archives for good governance in an international context where their significance transcends national boundaries in the globalized information society. As the memory of society, archives are not only important from a cultural point of view, but also from the perspective of supporting efficient management practices. In the records continuum approach to record keeping, where records are managed from the point of creation, accountability is supported through ongoing attention to good records and archives management practices which underpin democracy and human rights. Such a continuous management approach is important in the transitory digital era.”
Keynote speakers include Antonio González Quintana and Eric Ketelaar. Parallel sessions are organized around 4 broad areas, including human rights and archives; archival solidarity; cross-border archives; and formation of the nation-state and national identity. The human rights portion lists the following speakers/topics:
- Youssef El Bouhairi / Morocco: ‘Archive and Justice’
- Patricia Huenuqueo Canales / Chile: ‘Archivos Públicos y Represión en Chile: Las Incapacidades de la Memoria’
- Tine Berg Floater / Norway: ‘Documenting forced labour in Norway during World War II’
- Livia Iacovino / Australia: ‘Silent witnesses: Implementation of international human rights as warrants for archival agenda for Indigenous Australians’
- Muhammad Lutful Haq / Bangladesh: ‘Right to Information Act and Record Management System in Bangladesh’
- Gabriella Citroni / Italy: ‘El derecho a la verdad y el acceso a los archivos: logros y retos’
- Michelle Caswell / USA: ‘Khmer Rouge Archives: Accountability, Truth, and Memory in Cambodia’