The right to know, the right to justice, the right to reparation : these are fundamental rights, which should be accessible to every victim of repression. They can only be exercised if proof of any contravention has been preserved. This proof is to be found in archives.

Whether the archives are those of the state or of non-governmental organisations they are all too often under threat, from wilful destruction, dispersion, neglect or ignorance of their importance…

Protecting these archives and bringing them to public attention is a defence of victims’ rights, but it is also a way of preventing a repetition of victimisation, and of educating young people and informing future generations.

Archivists, who gather and preserve the collective memory, cannot remain simple spectators of past and present human suffering. They know the threats to which these archives are exposed, and the importance of saving them in order to make them accessible. They offer you this exhibition in the hope that it may enable those who have disappeared or whose life has been shattered, to regain their voice and their humanity. We must not forget the past, and must learn not to repeat it.