The symposium which is part of following up the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) in terms of archives, history and memory, aims to develop an inventory of historical research on the Sahara and to explore new avenues of research, embracing both the issues related to history, memory and tangible and intangible heritage of the region, said a statement from the CNDH.

Organized in partnership with the agency for the promotion of economic and social development of the southern provinces, the Region and the province of Oued-Eddahab Lagouira, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Rabat (University Mohammed V-Agdal) and Sherifian phosphate Office (OCP), this international conference will be attended by some thirty historians, sociologists, anthropologists, university professors and experts from Morocco and nine other foreign countries (France , Spain, Portugal, Mexico, USA, Qatar, Senegal, Mauritania and Niger).

Several areas are proposed for discussion at the symposium, including the inventory of historical research on the Sahara, colonial archives (Spain and France), present time, oral history, tangible and intangible heritage in the Sahara, methods and processes of heritage identification, inventory and preservation, preservation of memory, heritage and national and international cultural policies and musealization process of intangible Heritage, the source said. 

Mr. Pierre Bonte, Emeritus Research Director at the National Center for Scientific Research (France) and member of the Laboratory of Social Anthropology from the College de France in Paris will be honored on the sidelines of the meeting. 

Specialist of the Tuareg world and Saharan baydân, Pierre Bonte has several publications to his credit, including "The emirate of Mauritania Adrar: Harîm, competition and protection in a Saharan tribal society " (2008), the "Iron Mountain" SNIM, a mining company in the Mauritanian Sahara at the era of globalization" (2001) and "married to the nearest, incest matrimonial prohibitions and strategies in the Mediterranean" (1994). 
 
The CNDH held July 15 16, 2011 in Al-Hoceima, a first meeting on "Cultural Heritage of the Rif: what museography?", then a second, September 16, 2011 in Nador, on "Museum of the Rif: role of civil society. "

-News on Western Sahara issue / Corcas -