What can we do for Ukraine now? Updated August 2022
Help for Ukraine - Update - August 2022
The State Archival Service of Ukraine has announced a charity account to support Ukrainian archival institutions endangered by Russia's invasion. The charity account will help preserve the documentary heritage of Ukraine and support the recovery of these archives' coordinated work and activities.
They are reaching out to concerned citizens, organisations and colleagues from Ukraine and all over the world to donate funds to the charity account. Even small donations will make a significant difference. Received funds will be used to rebuild archives and ensure their proper functioning during wartime. They will regularly report on the charity account via their website.
You can find out more and donate here: https://archives.gov.ua/en/a-charity-account-to-support-ukrainian-archives-during-wartime-is-opened/
War in Ukraine - Update – May 2022
John Chambers, our Chief Executive, attended an All-Party Parliamentary Group for Libraries meeting with the Minister for Culture from Ukraine.
The meeting heard how Russian soldiers are burning any books written in Ukrainian (rather than Russian) and that 15 libraries have been destroyed.
Sadly, there continues to be very little we can do but offer the support already outlined below and prepare ourselves to help with rebuilding Ukraine’s archives and libraries sector when the moment of victory comes.
Suggestions of what that support might look like are:
Internships and training for librarians/recordkeepers/archivists/conservators to help get staff back on track after months of war (some will have been serving in the army).
Twinning of libraries/archives to provide ongoing support over what will no doubt be a lengthy recovery period.
An unprecedented situation in Ukraine
Current systems do not seem to cover a war where the aggressor, Russia, does not feel bound by any existing conventions, protocols or rules.
It is clear that Russia is not abiding by the Hague Convention and that in some cities they are destroying everything (probably breaching a lot of other international conventions in the process as this includes schools, hospitals, civilian housing and so on).
Although there was some prelude to this war it was hard to assess whether it would actually happen. Ukraine’s response was one of defiance both to the threat and to the actual invasion. Evacuation of cultural and heritage assets in advance would have undermined that message. The importance of Ukraine staying Ukrainian is clear to all and the value of those cultural assets to that ongoing narrative is important. It seems likely that Ukraine will want to safeguard its cultural assets within the country rather than evacuate (even if such an evacuation was practical).
We have contacted the State Archival Service of Ukraine directly to see what support we can offer – whether financial or in other ways. We’d like to thank all our members who have already contacted us regarding giving to a fund for this support.
We are currently awaiting a response and will update members as soon as we have one.
International Council on Archives:
Thank you to everyone who helped influence this decision - the ICA made the following resolution last night to sever ties with Russian institutions. You can read the full ICA resolution here.
To note: we asked for the following textual changes but the original text was used due to difficulties in getting it translated quickly into five languages.
Point 1 a) we asked that the words “armed aggression” be changed to the following:
in the light of invasion and subsequent war waged against Ukraine, including its people, both military and civilian, its government, its cities and infrastructure, and its irreplaceable documentary and cultural heritage, by the government of the Russian Federation with the support of the Republic of Belarus,
In point 2 we asked or the word “ceasefire” to be changed to “peace”:
2) . Suspension of relations means that all formal contacts between these institutions and their employees with the ICA, its entities (expert groups, sections, branches) and authorities (Fund for the International Development of Archives, Programme Commission, Forum of National Archivists, Forum of Professional Associations, Executive Board, General Assembly) and all participation in ICA’s activities and events (conferences, congresses, International Archives Week, and similar activities) shall be halted until such time as peace has been negotiated to the satisfaction of the legitimate government of Ukraine and ensuring the safety and sovereignty of the individuals and institutions that protect the cultural heritage of Ukraine.
Things you can do now:
Donate materials to protect Ukraine’s cultural heritage
ICON are hosting a list of materials required to protect Ukraine’s cultural heritage in liaison with ICOMOS-Ukraine Heritage in Crisis Working Group and the Lviv Polytechnic University who have launched a Centre for the Salvation of Cultural Heritage in the Scientific and Technical Library of the University.
ACTION:
They are looking for everything from the most basic packing materials to specialist archival standard protective materials - you can see the full list here.
Help the National Electronic Archive of Ukraine
ARA is also aware of an effort to safeguard digital records of the National Electronic Archive of Ukraine. This a materially different operation than that of SUCHO (below) as it relates to offline content and transactional records of government agencies.
ACTION:
If you are able to help with this initiative please contact Deborah at Deborah.Mason@archives.org.uk who will pass on your message.
Support Ukraine’s Film Archive
The Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre in Kyiv has an archive of international significance with an extensive collection of Ukrainian and foreign films which includes 7,000 feature films, documentaries, and animated films, as well as thousands of archival records from the history of Ukrainian cinema. Despite its important contribution to Ukrainian and world cinema the Centre has always been under-funded and the Russian invasion has left it unable to pay its staff, protect its unique archive, and continue to operate. Donations to this fundraiser will help it to survive until this dreadful period is over.
ACTION:
Support a Polish initiative to help the State Archive in Lviv
One of our members alerted us to this initiative in Poland.
A group of Polish historians affiliated with the Institute of History at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, in partnership with the Publishing Association “Historia Iagellonica” have begun supporting the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv. The Archive collects invaluable archival materials on the history of Central and Eastern Europe from the Middle Ages to the present day and remains a significant archival and scientific institution on the map of the European continent. This support will be provided through fundraising efforts to purchase special equipment for protecting archival materials (e.g extinguishing agents, firefighting equipment, power generators etc.).
ACTION:
We are not able to do any due diligence on this opportunity but you can find out more about how you can support them here.
UNESCO
The World Heritage Committee is due to meet in Russia in June. Given the flagrant breaches of the Hague Convention in the war in Ukraine this is highly inappropriate and UK Secretary of State or Digital, Media, Culture and Sport, Nadine Dorries, has called for the meeting to be moved.
However UNESCO’s position is this:
“In view of the many questions being addressed to UNESCO concerning the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee scheduled to take place in Kazan (Russian Federation) from 19 to 30 June 2022, the procedural elements are hereby clarified:
The 194 States Parties to the World Heritage Convention are represented by 21 Member States elected in the General Assembly. These 21 Member States compose the World Heritage Committee.
As stipulated in the Rules of Procedure, the World Heritage Committee itself determines, at each session, the date and place of its next session.
As such, the decision by the Member States of the World Heritage Committee to hold the 45th session of the Committee in Kazan was taken at the 44th session of the Committee, in July 2021, following the invitation by the Russian Federation.
A change of location of the 45th session can be decided at this stage by the Member States of the World Heritage Committee in the governance bodies dedicated to this Committee.
This decision can thus be taken in two ways:
either by the 21 Member States of the Committee, meeting in extraordinary session at the request of two-thirds of its members, who would take the decision by consensus or by a simple majority vote;
or by the States members of the Bureau of the Committee who would take the decision at a dedicated meeting.
The list of States members of the World Heritage Committee and Bureau is available at the following link: whc.unesco.org/en/committee/”
Our call to action has therefore changed:
ACTION:
If you have any contacts within the cultural ministries of the 21 Member states or the Bureau and can exert any influence on this decision or on national decision makers please do so to ensure the meeting is moved from Russia.
Bureau Members: Chairperson: H.E. Mr. Alexander Kuznetsov (Russian Federation), Rapporteur: Ms. Shikha Jain (India), Vice-Chairpersons: Argentina, Italy, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand
Committee members: Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, Zambia
SUCHO -Save Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online
An update on this initiative is that one week post launch the project now has over 1,000 volunteers across the world and has captured over 1,500 Ukrainian museum and library websites, digital exhibits, text corpora, and open access publications.
More info in the SUCHO press release here.
ACTION:
Thanks to the unprecedented response they are now only looking for volunteers with these specific skills:
If you can read Ukrainian or Russian, or if you can run the Browsertrix crawler, please sign up here.
Forward look:
Blue Shield will be issuing updated guidance tomorrow and we will link here as soon as that is available.
Keep in touch:
If you are aware of other initiatives relating to saving cultural and heritage assets in Ukraine and/or direct requests for support from archive/heritage organisations in Ukraine please do forward them on to Deborah.mason@archives.org.uk
Resources
If you are undertaking any storage of digital material (or physical) on behalf of a Ukrainian organisation - effectively acting as a ‘Safe Haven’, please refer to Swisspeace guidance here. This guidance is quite detailed and we have summarised the minimum requirements needed in an emergency here.
Feature image is of Precherskyi District in Kyiv, photo by Eugene via Unsplash.