The Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism was a declaration which was initiated by the Czech government and signed on 3 June 2008 by prominent European politicians, former political prisoners and historians, among them former Czech President Václav Havel and future German President Joachim Gauck, calling for "Europe-wide condemnation of, and education about, the crimes of communism." Much of the content of the declaration reproduced demands formulated by the European People's Party in 2004, and draws heavily on the theory or conception of totalitarianism.
To date, the most visible proposal set forth by the declaration was the adoption of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism (known as the International Black Ribbon Day in some countries), adopted by the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, as the official international remembrance day for victims of totalitarian regimes. On 14 October 2011, the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, an EU educational project to raise awareness about totalitarian crimes and to combat intolerance, extremism, and anti-democratic movements, was established by the governments of the Visegrád Group and a number of European government institutions and NGOs, as an initiative of the Polish EU presidency and following decisions by the European Parliament and the EU Council supporting the project. The declaration has been cited as an important document in the increasing "criminalisation of Communism" and the strengthening of totalitarian interpretations of Communism in the European political space.
Conference The declaration concluded the conference European Conscience and Communism, an international conference that took place at the Czech Senate from 2 to 3 June 2008, hosted by the Senate Committee on Education, Science, Culture, Human Rights and Petitions, under the auspices of Alexandr Vondra, Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic for European Affairs, and organised by Jana Hybášková MEP and Senator Martin Mejstřík in co-operation with the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the European People's Party's Robert Schuman Foundation.
The conference on European Conscience and Communism received letters of support from president Nicolas Sarkozy (France), Lady Margaret Thatcher (UK), Secretary of State Jason Kenney (Canada) and former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski (United States).
Laure Neumayer notes that "the conference benefited from the support of a government about to take the presidency of the EU and from the moral authority of former dissidents."
Declaration The declaration was preceded by the European Public Hearing on Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes. The declaration is part of a wider process at the European and international level, aimed at reaching similar objectives to those stated in the declaration.
Central to the declaration is the call for an "all-European understanding that both the Nazi and Communist totalitarian regimes [...] should be considered to be the main disasters, which blighted the 20th century." The declaration or its proposals have received support from the European Parliament, notably in its 2009 resolution on European conscience and totalitarianism, from other bodies of the European Union, from the governments of multiple European countries affected by communist totalitarian rule and Soviet occupation, and from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
The declaration called for: "reaching an all-European understanding that both the Nazi and Communist totalitarian regimes each need to be judged by their own terrible merits to be destructive in their policies of systematically applying extreme forms of terror, suppressing all civic and human liberties, starting aggressive wars and, as an inseparable part of their ideologies, exterminating and deporting whole nations and groups of population; and that as such they should be considered to be the main disasters, which blighted the 20th century" "recognition that many crimes committed in the name of Communism should be assessed as crimes against humanity serving as a warning for future generations, in the same way Nazi crimes were assessed by the Nuremberg Tribunal" "formulation of a common approach regarding crimes of totalitarian regimes, inter alia Communist regimes, and raising a Europe-wide awareness of the Communist crimes to clearly define a common attitude towards the crimes of the Communist regimes" "introduction of legislation that would enable courts of law to judge and sentence perpetrators of Communist crimes and to compensate victims of Communism" "ensuring the principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination of victims of all the totalitarian regimes" "European and international pressure for effective condemnation of the past Communist crimes and for efficient fight against ongoing Communist crimes" "recognition of Communism as an integral and horrific part of Europe's common history" "acceptance of pan-European responsibility for crimes committed by Communism" "establishment of 23 August, the day of signing of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, as a day of remembrance of the victims of both Nazi and Communist totalitarian regimes, in the same way Europe remembers the victims of the Holocaust on 27 January" "responsible attitudes of National Parliaments as regards acknowledgement of Communist crimes as crimes against humanity, leading to the appropriate legislation, and to the parliamentary monitoring of such legislation" "effective public debate about the commercial and political misuse of Communist symbols" "continuation of the European Commission hearings regarding victims of totalitarian regimes, with a view to the compilation of a Commission communication" "establishment in European states, which had been ruled by totalitarian Communist regimes, of committees composed of independent experts with the task of collecting and assessing information on violations of human rights under totalitarian Communist regime at national level with a view to collaborating closely with a Council of Europe committee of experts" "ensuring a clear international legal framework regarding a free and unrestricted access to the Archives containing the information on the crimes of Communism" "establishment of an Institute of European Memory and Conscience" "organising of an international conference on the crimes committed by totalitarian Communist regimes with the participation of representatives of governments, parliamentarians, academics, experts and NGOs, with the results to be largely publicised world-wide" "adjustment and overhaul of European history textbooks so that children could learn and be warned about Communism and its crimes in the same way as they have been taught to assess the Nazi crimes" "the all-European extensive and thorough debate of Communist history and legacy" "joint commemoration of next year's 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the massacre in Tiananmen Square and the killings in Romania"
The Declaration cites Council of Europe resolution 1481 as well as "resolutions on Communist crimes adopted by a number of national parliaments." The Declaration was preceded by the European Public Hearing on Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes.
Signatories The founding signatories included:
Václav Havel, former dissident and President of Czechoslovakia and President of the Czech Republic, signatory of Charter 77 Joachim Gauck, former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records and serving President of Germany (2012–17), Germany Göran Lindblad, Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Member of Parliament, Sweden Vytautas Landsbergis, Member of the European Parliament, former dissident and head of state of Lithuania Jana Hybášková, Member of the European Parliament, Czech Republic (since 2011 the Ambassador of the European Union in Iraq) Christopher Beazley, Member of the European Parliament, United Kingdom Tunne Kelam, Member of the European Parliament, former dissident, Estonia Jiří Liška (statesman), Senator, Vice-Chairman of the Senate, Parliament of the Czech Republic Martin Mejstřík, Czech Senator Jaromír Štětina, Czech Senator Emanuelis Zingeris, Member of Parliament, Lithuania, Chairman, International Commission for the Assessment of Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, former honorary chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Tseten Samdup Chhoekyapa, Representative of the Dalai Lama for Central and eastern Europe and head of the Geneva Tibet Bureau Ivonka Survilla, Leader of the Government-in-exile of Belarus, Canada Zyanon Paznyak, Former Chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front, Chairman of the Christian Conservative Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, United States Růžena Krásná, former political prisoner, politician, Czech Republic Jiří Stránský, former political prisoner, writer, former PEN club chairman, Czech Republic Václav Vaško, former political prisoner, diplomat, catholic activist, Czech Republic Alexandr Podrabinek, former dissident and political prisoner, journalist, Russian Federation Pavel Žáček, Director, Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Czech Republic Miroslav Lehký, Vice-director, Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, signatory of Charter 77, Czech Republic Łukasz Kamiński, Vice-director, Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), Poland (from 2011 President of the IPN) Michael Kißener, professor of history, Johann Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany Eduard Stehlík, historian, Vice-director, Institute for Military History, Czech Republic Karel Straka, historian, Institute for Military History, Czech Republic Jan Urban, journalist, Czech Republic Jaroslav Hutka, former dissident, songwriter, signatory of Charter 77, Czech Republic Lukáš Pachta, political scientist and writer, Czech Republic
The Declaration was subsequently also signed by around 50 members of the European Parliament and other politicians from around the world, including Els de Groen, Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis, György Schöpflin, Gisela Kallenbach, Eugenijus Gentvilas, Michael Gahler, Zuzana Roithová, Inese Vaidere, Hans-Josef Fell, Nickolay Mladenov, József Szájer, Peter Stastny, Ari Vatanen, Wojciech Roszkowski, László Tőkés, Charlotte Cederschiöld, László Surján, and Milan Zver.
The Declaration was also signed by Lee Edwards (Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation), Asparoukh Panov (Vice-President of the Liberal International), poet and civil rights activist Natalya Gorbanevskaya, philosopher André Glucksmann, and former Yugoslav dissident Ljubo Sirc.
Aftermath
Following its announcement, a number of political developments have taken place relating to the issues raised in the Prague Declaration. These developments have been referred to as the "Prague Process" by the Reconciliation of European Histories Group, an all-party group in the European Parliament chaired by Sandra Kalniete, and by historian Laure Neumayer.
2008