Conferences 2009
International Conference “Twenty Years After: Central and Eastern European Communist Regimes as a Shared Legacy”
Prague, 6-7 October 2009
The Conference focused on the legacy of the non-democratic past of Central European countries. Taking into account the more common approaches stressing the radical nature of ruptures accompanying the demise of the communist regimes in the region, twenty years after the Fall, both the scientific community and the Central and Eastern European societies are probably ready to accept a more detailed account of prevailing – but also of transformed – social and political practices.
The Conference was based on an interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary approach towards the late communist period of the 1980s and its legacy to present day. An institutionalised coming to terms with the past, as the key panel of the Conference, was brought forward through the comparative perspective of transitional justice.
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The Condemnation of Communist Crimes and the Application of International Crimes Debate
The discussions were atteded by: Marius Oprea, president of the IICCR; Cristian Parvulescu, National School of Political and Administrative Studies; Iulia Motoc, Faculty of Political Science-Bucharest; Stefanie Ricarda Roos, Director of the Rule of Law Program South East Europe, KAS, Silvia Martis, Romanian-American University-Bucharest; Valerian Stan, publicist; Georgiana Iorgulescu, executive director, the Centre for Juridical Resources; Raluca Grosescu, head of the Documentation and Research Office within the IICCR; Raluca Ursachi, drd. Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne.
The volume “Transitional Criminal Justice. From Nurenberg to Romanian post communism”, by Raluca Grosescu and Raluca Ursachi, was officialy released during the debate.
The public hearing “European Conscience and Crimes of Totalitarian Communism: 20 years after”
On 18 March 2009, at the European Parliament’s headquarters in Bruxelles the public hearing “European Conscience and Crimes of Totalitarian Communism: 20 Years After” took place. The hearing was organised by the Czech presidency of the European Union.
Representatives from the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the Security Services Archive from Czech Republic, the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, the Institute of Contemporary History in France attended the meeting. The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania was represented by a delegation led by Marius Oprea, the president of the Institute.
The main topic of discussion was the establishment of a European platform of memory and conscience to support the activities of institutions engaged in reconciling with totalitarian regimes in Europe. The Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism adopted on 3 June 2008 was analysed as well.
