Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid
The Lázaro Galdiano Museum hosts, from 4 to 6 October, the 'International Conference on Cultural Policies to Promote European Democratic Memory'. Inaugurated by the Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory, Félix Bolaños, who in his speech has placed in value the management of cultural heritage from memory, human rights and the principle of non-repetition, as well as the need for policies of memory to transmit democratic efforts to defend dignity, equality and freedom.
Organized on the occasion of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union by the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the meeting brings together more than fifty international experts with the aim of making visible those initiatives that contribute to the promotion of memory and the defense of human rights whose purpose is to prevent the recurrence of the war conflicts that plagued Europe during the 20th century.
Since the end of the wars in Europe of the last century, the promotion of democratic memory policies has become a moral duty to neutralize the oblivion of the most tragic episodes of our recent history. With education and culture as fundamental pillars to promote plural citizenships and aware of their past, European countries have launched a series of networks to intervene in public spaces with the creation of memorials and museums that pay tribute to the individual and collective struggles of women and men who contributed to the conquest of democratic rights and freedoms.
Bolaños highlighted that the Government of Spain has worked for five years to place our country's memory policies in the international context; an effort that has been concretized in the Democratic Memory Law and in decisions of great social and historical importance, such as the designation of the Villa de Gernika as "place of memory" or the resignificance of the Valley of Cuelgamuros.
The event was attended by the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, the director of the Lázaro Galdiano Foundation, Begoña Torres, representatives of international institutions and associations linked to memory, such as the president of the International Alliance for the Remembrance of the Holocaust, Sara Lustig, and personalities such as Pablo de Greiff, former United Nations Special Rapporteur for the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.