Mission
The Nation's Memory Institute (Ústav pamäti národa) is a public-law institution founded by the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No. 553/2002 Coll. on Disclosure of Documents Regarding the Activity of State Security Authorities from 1939 to 1989 and on founding the Nation's Memory Institute and on Amending Certain Acts.
It has set about to fulfil following main tasks:
- perform complete and unbiased evaluations of the period marked with oppression, primarily analyze the causes and means of loss of freedom, manifestations of fascist and communist regimes, their ideology and involvement of native and foreign persons,
- disclose documents on persecution to the persecuted individuals,
- publicize information on the persecutors and their activities,
- prompt criminal prosecution of crimes and criminal offences, cooperate with General Prosecutors Office in the Slovak Republic,
- provide relevant information to public authorities,
- systematically accumulate, expertly, scholarly and documentarly process all types of information, records and documents pertaining to the period of oppression,
- work with similar institutions in the Slovak Republic and abroad, mainly with archives, museums, libraries, survivors of the resistance, survivors of concentration and labor camps, provide them with information, present them with research options, render methodical counsel and promote their activities,
- present the public with the results of its activities, primarily publicize information and other records between 1939 and 1989, individual actions and life stories, publish and promote publications and audiovisual works including own documentary movies, organize educational and cultural events, seminars, conferences, discussion forums,
- promote ideas of freedom and defence of democracy against such regimes as Nazism and Communism,
- grant official status of anti-communism resistance participant and anti-communist resistance veteran.