International Council of Archives

Mr Babacar Ndiaye, Director of the National Archives of Senegal, Mr Papa Ousmane Gueye, Government Secretary General, Mr Seydou Madani Sy, Archivist Paleographer, Honorary Rector, Former Minister.

The Directorate of the Archives of Senegal celebrated International Archives Day for the third time, on the theme of 'Administrative information and the protection of information about personnel'.

Apart from Dakar with the National Archives and the deposits of public and private archives, this celebration concerned the regions of the country with regional archives.
The celebration, organized by the National Archives in the large conference room of the Chamber of commerce and industry in Dakar, was marked by three major activities: an presentation ceremony of the ‘Honorary diploma of the Archives of Senegal', a panel on the theme and the taking of the oath by archivists and employees of the public archives services (ministries and public establishments, conforming to he law of the 19th to the 30th June 2006, regarding archives and administrative documents).

The public and private media (newspaper, television, radio) covered these activities. Interviews and reports were done at the National Archives but also at the Audiovisual Archives of Senegalese television and radio (Radiodiffusion Télévision Sénégalaise).

In his speech, Mr. Babacar Ndiaye, Director of the Archives of Senegal, welcomed the participants and the invited parties. The theme ‘Administrative information and the protection of information bout personnel', he said was truly current in the context of the new itizenship born in the wake of democratic progress in our country in the last decades. In addition to introducing the subject, he spoke of the innovation of this year's celebration in the presentation of the ‘Honorary diploma of the Archives of Senegal' for services rendered to the Archives of Senegal. It was given to Mr Seydou Madani Sy, archivistpaleographer, former Rector, former minister, Mr Amadou Alassane Bousso, first Director of the School of Librarians, Archivists et Documentalists (EBAD/UCAD) of Dakar, Mr Oumar Ba, former archivist and Saliou Mbaye, former Director of the Archives of Senegal. It was a moving and inspiring ceremony.

After the official opening ceremony by Mr Papa Ousmane Gueye, Secretary General of the Government, who assured the audience of the interest that the President of the Republic shows towards archives in personally investing himself in their modernization, but also to give Senegal an archival establishment worthy of our country, a conference on the theme was led by a panel composed of experts in the management of administrative information but also in the protection of information on personnel.
Mr Seydou Madani Sy, Archivist-paleographer, Professor, former Rector, former Minister, former President of hte State Council, former Mediator of the Republic, President of the National Commission on Access to Administrative information and the Protection of Information on Personnel, Honorary Rector, chaired the conference.
In his turn, Mr Ahmeth Ndiaye, Professor at EBAD, Mr Abdou Latif Coulibaly, journalist-writer, Director of the Institute for Information Science and Communication, Mr Amadou Diallo, Magistrate, lawyer, Delegate of the Supreme Court, and Dr Mouhamadou Lo, ICT lawyer, legal consultant to the State Information Agency, presented their points of view on the question. This was a true cross-section of expert opinions evolving in their different sectors.

These proceedings evoked rich debate. Finally, because of the abundant sittings of the Regional Tribunal of Dakar on the 9th of June, the ceremony of the taking of the oath by archivists and employees of the public archives services at the Regional Tribunal of Dakar took place on Tuesday the 16th June 2009 at 10 am. 

Babacar Ndiaye
WARBICA President,
Director of the Archives of Senegal