Dr. Vinosh Sofka. The International Movement From Oppression to Democracy

Change from a totalitarian system to democratic rule and the role of heritage in this process The UNESCO Transition Project

The governance of the heritage, natural and cultural, is itself determined by the entire system of governance of the state.

The just governance of the state cannot be guaranteed  if the spirit of participation, accountability and transparency is not part of the ethical philosophy of the state.

Transition project rationale

Broad processes of transition in many countries from a totalitarian regime to a democratic rule is a phenomenon of the present world.

Problems of transition process are not only  of an economical or political nature. They include also social, cultural and environmental issues.

The complexity of these problems is given  first of all by the extensiveness of the interference of oppressive systems in the lives of everybody involved, and of measures needed to repair the damage they caused, and to heal the minds and souls.

The global heritage, the memory of the past, must be an important element  in facilitating the transition process by helping to understand its nature.

Universities, along with museums and other heritage institutions,  can play an active role to help in the solution of these problems, contributing thus to the fulfillment  of the objectives of UNESCO focused on understanding, tolerance and peace among people and nations.

Measures by heritage institutions must comprise  urgent preservation of the memory  of the totalitarian past, both tangible and intangible, and its documentation, with analytical studies.

The creative use of this past must be fostered  through formal and non-formal education  in the democratization of post-totalitarian countries.

Active participation of populations in the whole process will ensure objectivity and its human dimensions

Transition Project and UNESCO

• Draft resolution prepared by V. Sofka on the Transition Project for the UNESCO General Conference in 1995, and presented by the Czech Republic in Paris
• Heritage, museums and museology for social, cultural and environmental transition approved by UNESCO in October 1995
• Reinforcement of the Project by draft resolutions to UNESCO in 1997 and 1999.

Transition Project today

• Name of the Transition Project changed from Heritage, museums and museology for social, cultural and environmental transition to “From Oppression to Democracy” in 1999.

Founding of the International Movement “From Oppression to Democracy” to support democratic transition in the world in 2000

Aims

• Wake interest and encourage collaboration between people and institutions working in the field of the cultural and natural heritage in countries which are the process of transition
• Common participation of people and institutions in solving the concrete problems of transition, by using in a creative way the past, the recent memory, and the experience of their own populations.

Methods

• Serious unbiased research
• Non-partisan safeguard of the evidence of the past
• Documentation of the period that preceded and led to the changeover, and of the changes at the moment of the shift from one system to another
• Democratisation of museums and heritage agencies in former totalitarian countries
• Collaboration of all heritage-related institutions: universities, academies, cultural and heritage agencies
• Communication and activities with the public on issues of their choice (meetings, publications, videofilms, web pages, exhibitions)

Declarations of interest in the Transition Project Participants

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