| Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism | |
|---|---|
 The Prague Declaration was signed in Wallenstein Palace, seat of the Czech Senate | |
| Created | 3 June 2008 |
| Signatories | Václav Havel, Joachim Gauck, Göran Lindblad, Vytautas Landsbergis, Emanuelis Zingeris, Pavel Žáček, Łukasz Kamiński, Martin Mejstřík, Jiří Liška, Ivonka Survilla, around 50 members of the European Parliament, and others |
| Purpose | Called for "Europe-wide condemnation of, and education about, the crimes of communism"[1] |
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."[1][2] 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.[3]
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.[3]
- ^ a b Charles Recknagel (13 October 2011). "How Much Do Western Europeans Know About Communist Crimes?". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Archived from the original on 8 December 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
- ^ "Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism". Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. 3 June 2008. Archived from the original on 19 March 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
- ^ a b Neumayer, Laure (2018). The Criminalisation of Communism in the European Political Space after the Cold War. Routledge. ISBN 9781351141741.