Forgetting is not an option

The French philosopher Jacques Derrida once said “the question of archives is not an issue of the past. ... It is rather a question of the future; the question of a response, a promise and responsibility for tomorrow.”

This sentence could have been the motto of the workshop which brought together thirty professionals from five Asian countries last week in Manila. This regional symposium on dealing with the past which focused particularly on how human rights documentation can be used in contexts where societies deal with a violent past was organized by the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swiss Peace Foundation, with the support of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights and the Swiss Embassy. It aimed at providing human rights defenders from Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka with a general background on dealing with the past and its implication for the documentation of human rights violations, data collection, and memorialization in a broader strategy against impunity.

The example of the ongoing initiative to compensate victims of human rights violations committed during the Martial Law period in the Philippines gives an excellent example of the importance of archives in dealing with the past.

The Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act, which entered into force almost a year ago is the basis for reparations of victims of human rights violations committed during the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.

The only way of proving atrocities that occurred more than thirty years ago is through the use of documentary evidence. Both victims claiming compensation as well as the soon to be established Claims Board assessing those demands will rely on documents.

Evidence may be found in numerous archives of state agencies, NGOs, the police and army. While access to the latter remain fettered, linking those archival sources in a way that allows for cross-checking of names, incidents and events will greatly contribute to an efficient reparation process.

This is of particular importance to Switzerland as the funding earmarked for the compensation of the human rights victims is made available from the Marcos funds restituted by the Swiss authorities to the Philippine government.

Significantly, it is the first time that the restitution of ill-gotten wealth is directly linked to the reparations of victims. Moreover, the Victims Reparation Act provides for forms of symbolic reparation as well. They will be defined by the newly established Memorial Commission, which istasked to establish a memorial, museum and library compendium and to ensure that the teaching of Martial Law atrocities is included in the education curricula.

Realizing that access to archives is essential for the future reparation process, the CHR — already in 2011 — has pioneered its Martial Law Files Project. It aims at mapping existing archives containing information on human rights violations during the martial law period and to make them accessible. The Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the Swiss Peace Foundation have supported this important project since 2012.

Last week’s workshop built on this cooperation to reach out to practitioners who work on dealing with the past documentation in different Asian countries. They were given a space to meet and exchange best practice and to learn from experiences in other contexts, such as South Africa, Argentina and Bangladesh.

In panel discussions, working groups, film sessions and thematic inputs they learned about ways to support the right to know, the right to justice, the right to reparation and the guarantee of non recurrence through documentation.

Clearly, last week’s look into the past by all participants has offered a bright promise for tomorrow.

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(Ivo Sieber is the Ambassador of Switzerland)