International Seminar of the Ibero-American Year of Archives for Transparency and Memory
“The Place of Archives: Access to Information,
Transparency and Memory”.
The “Madrid Declaration” is issued
As part of the celebrations for the Ibero-American Year of Archives for Transparency and Memory, the International Seminar of the Ibero-American Year of Archives for Transparency and Memory, “The Place of Archives: Access to Information, Transparency and Memory” was held on 12 November 2019 in the city of Madrid, Spain.
The Iberarchivos cooperation programme, the Latin American Association of Archives (ALA), the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and the State Archives of Spain, with the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, convened the archival meeting where different representatives from the National and General Archives of Ibero-America as well as from the Philippines and Puerto Rico participated.
Cristina Díaz, Technical Secretary of Iberarchivos, highlighted the achievements of the international cooperation programme with the support of 1,314 archival projects, which promote access, organisation, description, conservation and dissemination of documentary heritage, which contributes decisively to consolidating the Ibero-American Cultural Space.
The seminar was an open forum that allowed for the strengthening of work and research links in the area of archiving and records management. Some of the topics developed in this archival meeting were: archives and documentary heritage, support programmes for archives, archives as repositories, the right of access to information, accountability and data protection, risk management to face natural disasters and climate change in the preservation of documentary heritage, data and information on archives in Ibero-America, archives in the digital era, the needs of the National Archives of Ibero-America to achieve a good performance, shared memory, among others.
For her part, the acting president of the Latin American Archives Association (ALA), Emma de Ramón, highlighted the support of specialists in different topics, in order to draft a Declaration that reflects the real needs of the Ibero-American archives and the challenges of archival development in Ibero-America.
The event was attended by directors and representatives of the National Archives of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, Philippines, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
From the dialogue generated by the interventions of specialists, academics, public officials and other professionals involved in archival work, it was possible to enrich the Madrid Declaration, which reinforces the commitment to the preservation, conservation and dissemination of archives in Ibero-America.
To conclude the event, Severiano Hernández, deputy director general of the State Archives of Spain and Silvestre Lacerda, director general of the Book, Archives and Libraries of Portugal, read out the Madrid Declaration in Spanish and Portuguese, which is intended to be submitted to the XXVII Summit of Heads of State and Government in 2020 in Andorra.
