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The first session took place on Friday, 22 August, in the Montevideo Hall of the Buenos Aires City Legislature, and the second in Espacio Aguaribay.
The conference opened with remarks from Francisco Quintana, Secretary of Justice of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires; Susanne Käss, Representative in Argentina of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation; and Gabriel C. Salvia, General Director of CADAL.
The first panel, “40 Years Since the Trial of the Military Juntas in Argentina”, was moderated by Melisa Balbi and featured Patricia Tappatá, Horacio Ravenna, and Jaime Rosemberg as speakers.
The second panel, “The Global State of Democracy”, was moderated by María de los Ángeles Lasa, with contributions from Carlos Gervasoni, Ignacio Labaqui, Inés Pousadela, and Javier El-Hage.
The third panel, “50 Years Since the Helsinki Accords”, was moderated by Susanne Käss and included presentations by Sanna Pulkkinen, Bogna Ruminowicz, Filip Kanda, and Eran Nagan.
The first day concluded with the panel “After Auschwitz”, moderated by Rubén Chababo, with talks by Ana Arzoumanian and Jorge Sigal.
The second day, held on Saturday, 23 August, at Espacio Aguaribay, began with the presentation of the book “A Brief History of Equatorial Guinea: The Country with the World’s Longest-Serving Dictator” by its author Omer Freixa and Tutu Alicante, moderated by María Navarro.
This was followed by the presentation of the 2025 Graciela Fernández Meijide Award for the Defence of Human Rights to four individuals imprisoned for political reasons in Latin America: Carlos Julio Rojas (Venezuela), Nancy Henríquez (Nicaragua), and Lizandra Góngora and Alexander Fábregas (Cuba). Sol Ramírez accepted the award on behalf of her brother Carlos Julio Rojas; Olguita Acuña on behalf of Nancy Henríquez; Leydis Aguilera on behalf of Lizandra Góngora; and Mario García Peña on behalf of Alexander Fábregas.
The 2025 edition of the annual conference on Memory, Human Rights and International Democratic Solidarity for the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarianism closed with a concert featuring Consuelo Pardo (Argentina), Olguita Acuña (Nicaragua), and Atemporal Trío, made up of Noslen Porrúa, Mario García Piña, and Jessica Zequeira (Cuba).
23 August marks the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, when the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany divided Eastern Europe. Former President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek described it as “the collusion of the two worst forms of totalitarianism in human history.” The International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarianism was adopted by the European Parliament and later by Canada. The initiative was proposed by Václav Havel and other European politicians and human rights activists.
Promoted by CADAL and supported by legislators Cecilia de la Torre and Francisco Quintana, in 2016 the Buenos Aires City Legislature officially adopted 23 August as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarianism through Law 5608, published in the Official Gazette of the City of Buenos Aires No. 4968 on 19 September 2016.
