2004: International year for the commemoration of the struggle against slavery and its abolition

摘要

Proclaimed International Year for the Commemoration of the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition by the General Assembly of the United Nations, 2004 marks the bicentenary of the first independent black state, Haiti, symbol of uprising and resistance by slaves. "By institutionalizing memory, resisting the onset of oblivion, recalling the memory of a tragedy that for long years remained hidden or unrecognized, and by assigning it its proper place in the human conscience, we respond to our duty to remember," said the Director-General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, in his message for the occasion.