Activating Historic Sites as Centers for Citizen Engagement with Human Rights Issues

Historic Sites for Future Change

The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience works to build the capacity of historic sites around the world to foster dialogue on pressing social issues and promote democratic and humanitarian values. It seeks to change the role of historic sites in civic life from places of passive learning to centers for active citizen engagement. They use the power of place to help communities have ongoing dialogues about the meaning of their past to shape their future.

Founded in 1999 by the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City, the Coalition began with nine additional historic sites around the world. These included:

The District Six Museum (South Africa)

Gulag Museum (Russia)

Liberation War Museum; (Bangladesh)

Maison des Esclaves (Senegal)

Memoria Abierta (Argentina)

National Civil Rights Museum (USA)

Terezín Memorial (Czech Republic)

Women’s Rights National Historical Park (USA)

The Workhouse (United Kingdom).

Believing that historic sites can be powerful catalysts for public awareness and action, the group pledged to work together to develop effective strategies for activating our places of memory as centers for dialogue on contemporary issues.

Transforming Historic Sites for Citizen Engagement

The coalition transforms historic sites from places of passive learning to places of active citizen engagement. It uses the history of what happened at its sites as the foundation for dialogue about how and where these issues are alive today. It encourages dialogue about what can be done to address them. The Coalition defines sites of conscience as initiatives that interpret history through sites, engage in programs that stimulate dialogue on pressing social issues, promote humanitarian and democratic values, and share opportunities for public involvement in issues raised at the site. It collaborates with leading human rights organizations to link history with current campaigns. Additionally, it inspires citizen participation in current struggles for truth and justice.

Three aspects of sites of conscience facilitate effective dialogue on divisive, contemporary human rights issues. First, by discussing current issues in the context of the past, the museums created a sense of distance that allowed certain conversations to happen that would have been too difficult otherwise. Second, by looking at the stories of individual, real people, the sites bring difficult, abstract issues down to a human level, a scale on which they can be productively discussed. Third, the coalition’s member museums bring people together in an emotional setting for dialogue that, in the words of one participant, “set everyone a little off balance,” shifting people out of their normal, rigid, stances and allowing them to look at these issues in a new light.

Tools for Justice, Reconciliation, and Civic Engagement

Sites of conscience can serve as powerful new tools in at least four processes in the defense of human rights:

truth seeking and building a culture of “never again”

reparations

reconciliation

civic engagement, or democracy building

The Coalition’s member museums have been significant factors in the recognition of human rights abuses in their countries. They’ve helped to bring perpetrators to justice and create precedents for accountability to ensure abuses will not happen again. But most importantly, they have begun to develop a culture of human rights and peace. They’re bringing together a broader citizenry that will actively oppose human rights abuses in the future.

In transplanting this tactic, it is important to use the specific history of your site and understand the ways the spaces make people feel, helping them to connect to the broader issues you are trying to raise. It is also important to engage conflicting perspectives in order to ensure that diverse groups will participate in the dialogue created by the project. Sites of conscience should serve as an open forum, for raising both sides of an issue and encouraging debate stimulates citizen participation more effectively than teaching a single story to a passive audience. Most importantly, use the individual human experience as a starting point, in order to help visitors connect the story to their own personal experiences and inspire them to take action and work towards lasting justice and reconciliation.

For more information on this tactic, read our in-depth case study.

What we can learn from this Tactic:

The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience connects museums, historic sites, and memory initiatives worldwide to help communities remember past struggles for justice and human rights. One key lesson from this tactic is the importance of using history as a tool for reflection and dialogue. By sharing personal stories of past injustices, these sites encourage visitors to think about current issues like discrimination and inequality. This tactic shows how remembering the past can inspire action today, helping people understand that they can make a difference. It can be applied to other issues, like environmental challenges or gender rights, to create meaningful discussions for change.