Kulturarv utan Gränser
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Archives
Archives belong to our culture as they form an inroad into our history and reflect values and manifestations within various societies. One reason why an archive can become endangered is because of armed conflicts, but important material can be lost just as often because of natural disasters or neglect.
One of the functions of archives is to preserve the memory of societies and their citizens, everything from land rights to the right of access to public information. During recent years the public function of archives has changed from primarily being a legal or administrative register to becoming more and more inclined towards a social and cultural source of documentation. This means that archives today are not merely important as a means for citizens to access decision-making but even as allowing them the right to their history.
Destruction by humans of written documents has been widespread during the 2oth century; as examples the following may be mentioned, the Soviet occupation of Hungary, the Spanish civil war, the Vietnam war, the wars in Afghanistan and in former Yugoslavia. Many of these conflicts have been due to ideological, religious and/or ethnic differences and the desire to exterminate the opposing side’s culture, history and memories.
Cultural Heritage without Borders has implemented projects on archives in Bosnia-Herzegovina, for more read here.
During the 1990’s archives and libraries began to be integrated into a wider heritage context, as exemplified by the UNESCO Programmes of World Cultural Report and Memory of the World. Today there is international cooperation to recognise archives as an integrated part of our heritage, for instance under the auspices of the International Council on Archives (ICA). Last autumn it was announced that a fund of £10 million to safeguard endangered archives had been formed in London. Historical and cultural archives can now apply for financial support when they are threatened by war or natural disasters. The Fund, ‘The Endangered Archives Programme’, which is one of the biggest in the world of its kind, was launched by the British Library in London in cooperation with the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund.
Cultural Heritage without Borders has participated in discussions with the National Archives about possibly starting a Swedish Blue Shield committee. Blue Shield is the symbol, according to the 1954 Hague Convention, used to mark museums, archives and historic and cultural sites as a way of protecting them from attacks in the event of armed conflict.
Read more:
van Albada, Joan: Lost Memory – Libraries and Archives Destroyed in the 20th Century, UNESCO, 1996.
Eller, Jack David: From Culture to Conflict, Michigan, 1999
