UNESCO today celebrates the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition. UNESCO also deals with the slave trade issue through its Slave Route Project, a critical examination of the impact of the slave trade between Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and North and Latin America in its historical and socio-economic context. The study of Slave trade archives is being given particular attention. Presently, a feasibility study on these archives which provide important information as to the history of slavery is being carried out within the framework of UNESCO’s ‘Memory of the World’ Programme in close co-operation with the International Council of Archives (ICA). The feasibility study aims at identifying national archives and related institutions in six African countries (Angola, Benin, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria and Senegal) and in Brazil, Haiti and St. Croix to upgrade their facilities and services in order to ensure adequate preservation of original records; obtain copies in appropriate formats of records held elsewhere; and ensure training of technical staff as a means of improving access to the records and other documents pertaining to the slave trade and slavery held in Africa and elsewhere. The safeguarding of Africa's imperiled oral traditions will be addressed and specific actions will be recommended in co-operation with competent institutions such as CELHTO in Niamey which maintains important collections of oral recordings and has been recommended as co-ordinator of international research on oral traditions and the slave trade. The project will focus on enhancing access to, knowledge and exploitation of, slave trade records, with a view to furthering the study of the origins and the modalities of the slave trade and highlighting the impact and lasting consequences it generated. It is also foreseen to set up databases on slaving expeditions, wrecks of slaving ships and on researchers and institutions studying the slave trade and the African diaspora. Links: Memory of the World Programme UNESCO's Slave Route Project International Council on Archives      Contact: Aziz Abid, UNESCO, Information and Informatics Division