Memoria Abierta

Memória Abierta is an alliance of Argentine human rights organizations that promotes the memory of recent human rights violations, actions of resistance and struggles for truth and justice. It contributes to the promotion of human rights and seeks to promote reflection on the present.

It was created in 1999 and is currently composed of eight human rights organizations: Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, Buena Memoria Civil Association, , and Puente 12 Victims' Tribute Commission, Commission for Memory, Truth and Justice of the Northern Zone, Relatives of Disappeared and Arrested for Political Reasons, Historical and Social Memory Foundation of Argentina, Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo - Founding Line and Service Peace and Justice.

In 1999, a group of human rights organizations began to meet, seeking to participate in a coordinated way in local and national initiatives in favor of the memory of the last dictatorship in Argentina. The main objective was to contribute to the elaboration of the memory of what happened during State terrorism and to the construction of a later democracy to strengthen and promote respect for human rights. The participating organizations came together with the conviction that a joint action would make them stronger in their struggle.

The initial work of Memoria Abierta included actions aimed at founding a Memory Museum, an extensive program of archival treatment of historical-institutional documents of human rights organizations and the construction of an Oral Archive of testimonies in film format on State terrorism. Later on were added works towards the task of systematization of photographs in a Photographic Archive and the production resources for the visualization of spaces of repression and resistance and their transformation into memory sites.

Memoria Abierta participated in the founding of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. In this space, coordinates the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Sites of Memory promoting the development of initiatives that stimulate reflection on human rights violations committed in these countries and their consequences in the present.

Memoria Abierta implements a documentary treatment program. In this framework, it established common guidelines and standards for the cataloging and standardization of the different archives it gathers (documentaries, photographic, audiovisual). It applies international standards of description and a specialized Thesauri on Human Rights.

The Oral Archive of Memoria Abierta produces and gives access to testimonies related to the period of State terrorism, to the social and political life of the 1960s and 1970s and to the different actions promoted by human rights organizations and civil society in the search for truth and justice. It is composed of interviews to people whose lives have been affected in various ways by state terrorism. These testimonies are ordered, cataloged and arranged for public consultation in order to facilitate the study and interpretation of Argentine recent past from the point of view of the actors involved.

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