EDITORIAL
dealing with sensitive and at times conflictive topics such as the field of memory practices and the uses of the past in contemporary societies . Without a human team , and without a diverse and therefore intensely rich network of members , this journey would not have been possible . We hope it will continue for many more years to come .
That is why this 2022 issue , after some strange and tumultuous years of pandemics and other nearby conflicts , we have decided not to present one single line of themed contents , and we have approached experts and professionals from different fields that we believe are key to address the present and the future in the debates and policies of memory . This is a current situation that affects us and tests us permanently and that in some way revisits some of the more classic problems ( East-West , relativism and imperialism ) or debates that have taken the public sphere by storm , such as colonial memories , gender , or the debates on values , rights and citizens that the CERV programme promotes from the European institutions .
Thus , as regards content , it is no coincidence that one of the magazine ’ s long articles is written by the lawyer Reed Brody , also known as the “ dictator hunter ” as a result of his work defending human rights in various countries , denouncing human rights violations in Nicaragua , collaborating with victims in the cases against the dictator Augusto Pinochet of Chile and Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti , among others . In “ Talking about Rose : Justice and memory in Chad ”, Brody brilliantly tells us how , with the cooperation of the victims , huge detective work was carried out to reconstruct in documentary form the repression of Hissène Habré , dictator of Chad between 1982 and 1990 , and heroic episodes such as that of Rose Lokissim , which were fundamental to be able to put Habré on trial , years later , in Senegal . At a time like the present , when democracy is under threat in different parts of the world and certain leaders believe they can enjoy impunity , it is worth remembering and explaining how justice , sooner or later , reaches different parts of the world .
In the European section — and without straying too far from current impunity —, the renowned historian Georges Mink has put on his long distance glasses to describe the evolution of memorial components in the geopolitical strategies that have affected Eastern Europe , and how Vladimir Putin , at the head of the Russian government , is using a militarised collective memory and exploiting the mobilising capacity of the narratives of the past ( especially of the Great Patriotic War ) to fulfil his territorial ambitions for Ukraine . Furthermore , changing subject , but within the framework of European memory policies , Marie-Louise Jansen explains the project she coordinates : Contested Histories in Public Spaces , a project promoted by the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation ( IHJR ) and the EuroClio-European Association of History Educators . This project has collected more than 500 cases from 139 different countries , identifying statues , monuments , places and space names that make up an uncomfortable heritage that is being socially protested against ( spaces linked to the memory of colonialism , imperialism , fascism , authoritarianism , communism , etc .) and in this article , Jansen makes us reflect on Europe ’ s need to face its past through different spaces that remember slave trafficking .
This year we have dedicated the interview to one of the most influential
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Observing Memories Issue 6