A/HRC/25/49 81. The issue cannot always be ignored, however, as mass graves continue to be found, for example when constructing new roads or buildings. Authorities are torn between the imperative of development and the building of a memorial, the respect due to the dead, the obligation to treat the place as a crime scene and the need to search for the perpetrators (or the fear of seeing them publicly identified should they hold public office). In some instances, the families of missing people themselves reject proposals for the construction of memorials, fearing that this may serve as an excuse not to open the mass graves. Adamantly opposed to their demands for exhumation being buried beneath some symbolic concrete, they consistently demand the physical return of the remains of their loved ones. 82. I. Ethical issues also arise when remains are exhibited in museums. Memorialization of slave trades 83. One of the most important and sensitive examples of memorialization concerns the centuries-long African slave trade. 84. Most societies, especially in Western countries, have started to grasp the magnitude of the tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade, in which they had the main share of responsibility. Of note are the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, United Kingdom and in France, the Mémorial pour l’abolition de l’esclavage in Nantes and the Schœlcher Museum in Guadeloupe, in addition to a number of museums in the United States of America. Many historians have been researching this topic and in the last 30 years it has become embodied in different memorials, in particular along the coastline of West Africa, such as the one on Gorée Island. 85. At the same time, it seems that there is no monument in Africa recalling the fate of the captives enslaved for the intra-Africa slave trade, or the trans-Saharan and eastern slave routes. Some African historians have denounced this reading of events, where the logic of victimhood absolves local actors and ignores the mechanisms of domination, power and exploitation within African societies.40 J. Memorializing the histories of indigenous peoples 86. Indigenous peoples are amongst those engaging their respective Governments to establish memorials of past genocides and/or to acknowledge their histories and contributions to societies. 87. Some countries have adopted positive steps. Memorials have been established in recognition of the contributions of ancestors, or the ancestors of part of the population, which suffered greatly, for example in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (A/HRC/23/34/Add.2, para. 29). 88. Many museums, in particular history museums, recall the culture, past suffering and continuing presence of indigenous peoples. This is the case of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, where curators consciously seek to be facilitators of memory rather than repositories of memorabilia, allowing memorialization processes to take place, including through cultural expressions and spiritual rituals. This presents its own 40 Ibrahima Thioub, “Regard critique sur les lectures africaines de l’esclavage et de la traite atlantique”, in L’esclavage et ses traites en Afrique, discours mémoriels et savoir interdits, revue du Département d’histoire et de géographie de la Faculté des sciences et technologies de l’education et de la formation, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, No. 8, 1er semestre 2009, p. 26. 17