The Our Future Memory movement to secure digital rights for memory institutions has taken another step forward. Internet Archive Canada has signed the Statement on the Four Digital Rights of Memory Institutions—and has gone further by ensuring the Statement is now available in French.
This translation opens the campaign to millions more people across Canada, Europe, Africa, and other Francophone regions, strengthening the inclusiveness of the global effort. Making the Statement accessible in different languages ensures that its principles resonate not just within professional circles but with communities everywhere that depend on libraries, archives, and cultural institutions.
Internet Archive Canada’s initiative builds on other international contributions. Thanks to the University Library “Svetozar Markovic” in Belgrade, a Serbian translation is also available, helping to spread the campaign across Central and Eastern Europe.
Together, these efforts highlight that the campaign is not only about four essential rights—
- Right to Collect
- Right to Preserve
- Right to Lend
- Right to Cooperate
—but also about making those rights understandable and actionable across languages and cultures.
Call for Volunteers Among our Signatories
The success of the campaign depends on broad participation. We are now looking for volunteers from our signatories to draft additional translations of the Statement. Each new version brings more people into the conversation, amplifying the call for legal frameworks that allow memory institutions to thrive in the digital age.
If you can help, please get in touch at campaigns@internetarchive.eu. By working together, we can ensure these rights are embraced worldwide—because preserving our future memory is a global task.