Request for the establishment of an International Committee of Social Museology (SOMUS-IC) sent to Director General of the International Council of Museums, August 1, 2022

Following up the information we sent you on the 20th of January 2022, on the establishment of a working group to elaborate the rationale of an International Committee on Social Museology, we hereby officially present the request for the creation of the International Committee of Social Museology (SOMUS-IC)

The signatories of this request are in full exercise of their rights as ICOM’ members and are supported by museologists working in the field of Social Museology from several countries. We believe that such an international committee, in addition to its future work in favour of Social Museology, will represent the fair and full recognition by ICOM of Museums that act openly in the spirit and in the form of the recent UNESCO Recommendation of 2015.

1. During the last 50 years, the place of Museums in contemporary society has been the object of profound practical and conceptual changes, leading to the emergence of new types of museums and museological processes.
2. The recognition of this reality by ICOM, is an ethical imperative that must be assumed, as it is a matter of elementary justice to promote the recognition and the power of Social Museology, as a reality of values that promote the respect for Human Rights. The museums and museological processes that identify themselves as agents of Social Museology are to be found in most countries, under different forms and denominations: Community Museology, Ecomuseology, Indigenous Museology, LGBTQI + Museology, Local Museology, Intersectional Museology among others.
3. This is about fully integrating, within ICOM, dialogical and community-based museums and museological processes, that act in innovative ways, while giving voice and civic rights to sectors of society, generally excluded from public policies in the field of culture and heritage, recognizing and respecting the right to difference, promoting equity, social inclusion, decolonial thinking and the SDGs.
4. The main goal of the International Committee of Social Museology, through its activities, events, publications, formative training, support programs and promotion of internships, and fieldwork support, will contribute to the advancement of Social Museology in particular, and consequently to Museology in general.
5. The International Committee of Social Museology will adopt, namely, the principles, values and objectives expressed in the Recommendation on the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, their Diversity and their Role in Society – UNESCO, 38th session of the UNESCO General Assembly, 2015.
6. The International Committee for Social Museology will recognize all the normative instruments of ICOM and will always act to support the general guidelines of ICOM with the means at its disposal.
7. The activities of the International Committee of Social Museology will always be subject to the Statutes of ICOM, the Internal Rules and Regulations of ICOM, the Code of Ethics of ICOM, the Rules for International Committees, and the relevant decisions of the General Assembly and the Executive Council of ICOM.

Thanking you in advance for welcoming this proposal, we stay open for any clarification you deem necessary.