Proceedings and minutes of the Meeting of SWARBICA Executive Board and General
Conference,
5-7th May 1997,
Tehran
At the outset Mr. S. H. Shahrestani Director General of Iran National Archives
Organization opened the meeting on 5 May, 1997. and expressed his satisfaction
and happiness that all the SWARBICA members were present in the meeting and
welcomed the participants Thereafter Mr. Atique Zafar Sheikh Secretary General
of SWARBICA on behalf of other members thanked Iran National Archives
Organisation (INAO) and Islamic Republic of Iran for hosting 7th
SWARBICA Meeting and General Conference after a lapse of 6 Years, enabling this
branch of ICA to be reactivated again. Present as members at this meeting were:
1) Mr. Seyed Hassan Shahrestani, Director General of INAO
2) Mr. Atique Zafar Sheikh, Director General of National Archives of
3) Dr. K.D.G. Wimalaratne Director General of National Archives of
4) Dr. Sharifuddin Ahmed, Director, of National Archives of Bangladesh.
5) Mr. H.D. Shing, Deputy Director, National Archives of India
6) Ms. Sanu Nani Kansakar, National Archives of Nepal.
The meeting discussed at length the items of the primary agenda (copy enclosed)
and the following decisions were taken:
1. Newly elected SWARBICA office bearers are:
- Chairman: Mr. S. H. Shahrestani (IRAN)
- Vice Chairman: Mr. S. Sarka (INDIA)
- Secretary General: Mr. Atique Zafar Sheikh (Re-elected) (PAKISTAN)
- Treasurer: Dr. K. D.G. Wimalaratne (SRI LANKA)
2. Treasury Problems and payment of dues arrears were discussed in detail
.It was determined that all members should remit their dues for t996 and their
arrears to the INAG's external account till the end of June 1997, in order to
enable the present treasurer (INAO) to submit full accounts of the treasury to
New Treasurer, Director National Archives of Sri Lanka Demand letters in this
regard should be given by INAO to the member countries before they have Tehran.
3. In order to reactivate the SWARBICA Branch, following activities were
approved and decide upon.
a) A 3 day Awareness seminar to be held by the National Archives of
Bangladesh in April or May 1998, (The Exact date would be announced 6 months
prior to the Seminar ) Local hospitality and accommodation would be provided by
the host country to SWARBICA treasury would make the travel arrangement of the
participants.
b) The next SWARBICA Executive Board Meeting will be held in Colombo -Sri
Lanka in Oct, 1998.
c) SWARBICA shall publish regularly its archival journal at least once a
year. Member countries should send their archival essays and articles on their
country's history/archives for the next planned issue to the Director General,
National archives of the Pakistan before September1997.
d) Publication of SWARBICA Newsletter; the first issue of the revised
Newspaper will be published by INAO provided that Member Countries send their
appropriate materials till 30 June 1997.
4. The New membership of Maldives and Bhutan was discussed: Letters with
reference to this meeting (5 May) should be sent persuading them to become
SWARBICA members.
5. No member was nominated to attend ESARBICA General conference though. it
was decided that only a letter of acknowledgement be sent to their secretariat.
On 6 May, a General conference of SWARBICA members and scholars from Iran and
archivists of the Iran National Archives Organization was held. Mr. Shahrestani,
Director General Iranian National Archives Organization, Presided over this
conference and all the representatives and heads of National Archives of the
members countries made presentation on the archival activities in their
respective countries including the details of the growth of the National
Archives in their own countries .They also identified some material which could
be of use to other member countries specially for Iranian scholars. This
conference continued for about four hours. After the presentation by each member
country a Question Answer session was held in which many points of common
interest were discussed and ways and means were suggested for exchange of
material of interest to each other. Earlier all the new office bearers were
introduced by the chairman Mr. Shalrestani and the conference expressed its
satisfaction and approval of election of new office bearers after a lapse of six
years.
Next day on 7 May, 1997 again the meeting of the Executive Board was held in
which the future activities of SWARBICA as mentioned above were confirmed and it
was stressed that now onward we may stick to our schedule of activities .All the
members were again reminded to settle the dues. The new Treasurer was requested
to look into the matter personally with the cooperation of ex-treasurer and try
to settle the treasury matters as early as possible. He was also requested to
inform all the member countries of the new Treasury Account which will be opened
by him in Sri Lanka, so that in future all subscription should be remitted to
new account in Sri Lanka. At the end of the Board Meeting the members passed the
following resolution and expressed their gratitude to the Govt. of Islamic
Republic of Iran for their hospitality etc.
During the course of their stay in Iran all the participants spent their
some time in the under - cons ruction building of the Iran national Archives
Organization and paid visits to some museums and exhibition in Tehran.
RESOLUTION
The participating member countries resolved to place on record their
appreciation and thanks to the Govt. of Islamic Republic of Iran and Director
General, Iran National Archives Organization and his staff for the Excellent
arrangements and hospitality extended to the participants of the member
countries.
In connection with the Archives Day which is celebrated by the Iran National
Archives Organization on 7th May each year, the president of' Islamic republic
of Iran Ayatollah Hashmi Rafsanjani, addressed the Archivists and scholars of
Iran and participants of the SWARBICA Executive Board meeting on 8th May, 1997,
in the president house. He spoke about the importance of archives and
preservation of cultural heritage. He assured that the Govt. will give full
support to the Iran National Archives Organization in completing it’s under
construction building and reorganizing it with better future programmes for
development.
