Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past is a civil society organization providing systematic support to processes of dealing with the past in Croatia through documentation of human losses and personal memories of wars, opening and deepening public dialogue on war events and various forms of political violence and systematic work on the improvement of judicial practices and standards.
The key reason for our efforts is the experience of silenced war events and other forms of political violence in the period from 1941 until the present. We believe this fact has significantly influenced recent history of these areas and it will necessarily reflect on future generations. At the same time, a tradition of democratic values, especially human rights, has still not been established in such areas. For this reason, we believe that substantial responsibility for a serious and thorough approach to their promotion and protection lies with Croatian society at this very moment in history.
In order to achieve its goals, Documenta cooperates with its founding organizations, associations of families of the missing persons, other civic initiatives, governmental institutions, international institutions and organizations, institutions of state and local government, academic institutions, religious groups, the media and other interested individuals. Documenta was awarded Charter of merit of the Republic of Croatia for unique and successful encouragement of the process of dealing with the past, researching and documenting prewar, wartime and postwar events and cooperation with civil society organizations and similar institutions in the world.