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The IBA’s response to the situation in Ukraine
The Law Society Gazette has published a co-authored opinion piece on contested historical legacies in public spaces by International Bar Association (IBA) Executive Director Mark Ellis and Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation (IHJR) Director, Timothy W Ryback.
The commentary, titled Game of stones, questions whether the permanence of statues is problematic in an ever-changing world: ‘By their very nature, statues and monuments impose a collective narrative of a nation’s sense of self on public spaces. When four Confederate statues were erected in the city of Baltimore in the early 20th century, the city had a majority white population. Demographics have shifted. It does not take much imagination to understand that a statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis does not belong in a city with a majority black population […] times change, people change, statues don’t. And that can be a problem.’ Read more at: www.lawgazette.co.uk/commentary-and-opinion/game-of-stones/5105007.article
The opinion piece follows the announcement by the IHJR of the Contested Histories in Public Spaces project – a long-term initiative intended to address controversies over statues, memorials, street names and other representations of disputed historical legacies in public spaces. As part of the project, the IHJR, the IBA and the Salzburg Global Seminar have convened a group of experts to prepare eight in-depth case studies on contested legacies in public spaces. Digests of a select number of the case studies can be read here: www.ibanet.org/Contested-histories.
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Notes to the Editor
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