UNESCO Memory of the World Programme: New Developments

DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING UNESCO’S MEMORY OF THE WORLD PROGRAMME

Nomination of South African archival collections for consideration for inscription in UNESCO’s Memory of the World International Register

The South African National Committee on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme sent out a call for proposals from UNESCO to most heritage institutions in South Africa for them to complete the forms for nominating their collections for possible listing in the Memory of the World International Register. The deadline for submissions was 31 March 2010. Nominations will be considered at the next International Advisory Committee (IAC) to be held in July 2011. The National Archives of South Africa and Freedom Park Museum were the only two South African Heritage institutions that submitted proposals to be considered at the 2011 meeting. The nominations submitted were:

- National Archives of South Africa: CODESA and Multi-Party Negotiating Council collections

- Freedom Park Museum: Medu Art Ensemble highlighting the contributions by Thami Mnyele

For more information on how to submit nominations, please see the official website of the Memory of the World Programme: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1538&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html or the following link on the National Archives of South Africa’s website: Call for New Nominations for Memory of the World (MoW) National, Regional and International Registers.

International exhibition of collections listed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World International Register to take place in Korea

The National Archives of Korea will be hosting an international exhibition highlighting collections that have been listed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World International Register in June 2010. The National Archives of South Africa will be contributing information on the Rivonia Trial collection, the listed of which in the International Register was accepted during the IAC meeting that was held in Pretoria in June 2007. Two staff members of the National Archives of South Africa and members of the South African National Committee of the Memory of the World Programme will be travelling to Korea to explain the content of the exhibition to the international participants. For more information on the IACE 2010 exhibition please visit the following website: http://www.iace.or.kr/eng/main.html

General Assembly of the Africa Regional Committee of the Memory of the World Programme

The second General Assembly of the Africa Regional Committee of the Memory of the World Programme (ARCMOW) was scheduled to take place in Algiers, Algeria later this year. Due to communication problems that have been experienced since last year, Algeria can no longer commit itself to holding this meeting. The Committee has approached Kenya with a request for hosting this meeting possibly in September 2010. This possibility has not yet been confirmed. The updated report of the ARCMOW, including a Plan of Action is attached for more information about the African Chapter of the Memory of the World Programme.

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