Impact Lab: November, 19 to 22 November, 2017 in Berlin, Germany

The overarching theme of the Global Diplomacy Lab (GDL) in 2017 was genocide and mass atrocities prevention. At the 6th Lab in Buenos Aires (Incubator Lab), GDL members had the opportunity to improve their skills and develop their ideas further by addressing the complexity of the former Argentinian military dictatorship and its ongoing political and social consequences. At the 7th Lab in Berlin (Impact Lab), GDL members added the enriching experience acquired at the Incubator Lab to their professional backgrounds, aiming to go a step further.

In a joint endeavour with ESMA Memory Site Museum, a key Argentinian institution devoted to promoting Memory, Truth and Justice, GDL members worked on a concrete challenge that plays a relevant role in the field of diplomacy and for which ESMA Memory Site Museum is seeking creative solutions:

How can ESMA Memory Site – a former clandestine centre for detention, torture and extermination – attract mass audiences while maintaining quality and the effectiveness of its main purpose to serve as a social tool to say “Never Again”?

ESMA Memory Site Museum is an official institution dedicated to the promotion of and respect for human rights through the testimony of survivors of the acts of state terrorism committed in the building. It describes the system of repression that took place in this particular site as a starting point for discussing the national history of state terrorism during the dictatorship in Argentina between 1976 and 1983. One of the main goals of the museum is to generate awareness and to prevent mass atrocities. This prevention can only be possible if the legacy of the museum is integrated into the social history and collective memory of the country, as well as among the international community.