UNESCO to Mark 1st Anniversary of Tuol Sleng Genocide Inscription

   Toul Sleng Genocidle museum in PhnomPenh, Cambodia.

CAMBODIA, PHNOM PENH, AUGUST 6, 2010- The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the UNESCO Office in Cambodia will jointly organize the 1^st anniversary ceremony of the inscription of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Archives in the Memory of the World International Register on 9 August, 2010, according to UNESCO office in Phnom Penh. UNESCO Office in Cambodia in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts is organizing the 1^st anniversary ceremony of the inscription of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Archives in the Memory of the World International Register. The event will feature speeches by the Minister of Culture and Fine Arts and Representative of UNESCO, and will conclude with art performances.
“The Memory of the World is the documented, collective memory of the peoples of the world. It is the legacy of the past to the world community of the present and the future.” The UNESCO Memory of the World Programme recognizes documentary heritage of international, regional and national significance, maintains registers of it, and facilitates preservation and access without discrimination. It campaigns to raise awareness of the documentary heritage and to alert governments, the general public, and businesses to preservation needs.
“This ceremony will foster reflections on collective memory and raise awareness and bring attention to the importance of preserving and protecting our documentary heritage that memorializes our past.” The ceremony will gather participants from the MoCFA and other concerned ministries, development partners and NGOs, and will be held in the morning of Monday, 9 August, 2010 at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
During the three day meeting of the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme, which was held on July 31, 2009 in Bridgetown, Barbados, Director General of UNESCO announced the inscription of documentary heritage on the recommendation of experts of the IAC of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme. The historical photographs and documents from the site of the S-21 prison and interrogation center of the Pol Pot regime, currently held at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, were listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register on 31 July, 2009. The museum archive holds 4,186 prisoner “confessions”, 6,226 biographies of prisoners and 6,147 photographic prints.

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