The Project’s founding working group, with members from a variety of different disciplines and political perspectives, developed the following common principles:

Involve the entire history of the site, not only its recent use in the “War on Terror”, grounded in rigorous scholarship;

Include multiple voices and perspectives such as recent and past detainees, military personnel, Cuban workers, Third Country Nationals and others, aiming to restore the dignity of all as human beings with complex individual histories and backgrounds;

Raise questions about the present and the future – not only of the site, but of related policies and practices at sites around the world – and inspire open and ongoing public debate for societies everywhere about how to act on the lessons of GTMO;

Be international, and offer a space for organizations and individuals to contribute their resources and perspectives;

Focus on reaching people off the physical site, without precluding the possibility of an on-site history museum in the future.

The Project seeks to foster intense and ongoing debates over critical issues around “remembering” Guantánamo: Does looking at the past distract from current issues? How can we build a public memory of a place so few people can see? How can we open dialogue on an issue that is so divisive?

Download the Project Blueprint for a summary of key debates.

View a video of diverse partners’ perspectives in the working group– from the ACLU to the Smithsonian Institution.

Add your take on our blog.

Learn about past and upcoming events where these issues are being debated.