What Is There to Protect? The "Voces Para Transformar a Colombia" Case

The Museo de Memoria de Colombia (Museum of Memory of Colombia, MMC) is a crucial example when considering the role of museums in peace-building and symbolic reparation during armed conflicts. As part of Colombia's complex transitional justice structure, the MMC, along with other institutions like the Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (Special Jurisdiction for Peace, JEP), ensures victims' rights to truth, justice, reparation, and non-repetition. My presentation discusses the censorship allegations against the first MMC exhibition, "Voces para Transformar a Colombia," and the subsequent request to expand provisional measures before the JEP to protect MMC's museological initiatives. While provisional measures are commonly pleaded in international human rights law to protect fundamental rights and prevent irreparable harm, the petition for safeguarding an exhibition is indeed a sui generis procedure. I argue that although provisional measures are legitimate mechanisms for collective memory defense and its manifestations in museological processes, implementing them without proper understanding of the actual object/subject of protection could undermine the original intention of providing symbolic reparation to victims. Therefore, I propose more collaborative work models between experts, especially in challenging peace-building situations like in Colombia, in order to achieve a more thoughtful result that upholds the victims' rights to reparation and satisfaction.