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The phrase “peace, order and good government,” common to the definition of federal powers in both the Australian and the Canadian constitutions, has defined the relationship of the Crown and the citizen for more than five centuries. The archival record is fundamental to that relationship, providing its authoritative legal basis, documenting its evolution and continuing as a reminder of both our proudest achievements and our most dismal failures as a society. This paper reflects on the role...

This article highlights the extent to which international law has changed rapidly in recent years in relation to the rights of Indigenous peoples generally, and in particular how this impacts upon the legal status of traditional knowledge and culture. It reviews the recognition of the unique legal status of Māori in Aotearoa and Aboriginal peoples in Canada in relation to selfdetermination and how their changing place within these nations are affecting the operations of museums, libraries...

This paper deals with issues of power and silencing of the “Other” within colonial archives, particularly regarding British East India Company records of an attempted mutiny of Bengali sepoys and Javanese aristocrats in 1815, now housed in the India Office Records of the British Library. It recommends incorporating a postcolonial approach and reading records against the grain in order to recover these marginalized voices. The body of this paper is broken into three sections. The first...

Abstract1. Through an exchange between members of community-based organizations that document human rights violations in northwest Colombia and northern Uganda

This paper reviews important aspects of the literature on collective memory, how some of these concerns have been expressed in archives, and contemplates how these issues relate to the politically transformative South African post-apartheid context. It highlights the erosion of boundaries between archives, museums, and other less-institutionalized memory projects in post-apartheid South Africa. It notes ways in which archival activity is taking place outside of traditional archives, as part...

On 22 April 2008, five years after the American invasion of Iraq, the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) issued a joint statement calling for American authorities to repatriate millions of captured intelligence documents and intervene with the “government of Kurdistan” to return the Iraqi Anfal files to the Iraq National Library and Archive in Baghdad. The Anfal files, which chronicle Iraq’s genocide against the Kurds during the mid- to...

(2010) Barrera. Archival Science. Abstract The paper discusses some archival issues that emerged during a judicial investigation carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office\nof Rome (Italy) regarding h...

For better or for worse, heritage is a key terrain on which societal conflicts are expressed. Instead of treating conflict over heritage sites defensively, shielding them from attack, we can take proactive steps to offer heritage sites as resources for addressing contested social questions. This article explores strategies used around the world by ‘Sites of Conscience’– heritage sites that foster dialogue on contemporary issues – to help communities to confront the questions that divide them.

This paper examines the implications of the context of creation on the current and potential future uses of the records produced by the Comissao de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliacao de Timor-Leste (Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, or CAVR). Given that the CAVR relied heavily on the testimony of the East Timorese people in its investigations that addressed a 25-year period, this paper considers the nature of memory and the role it played in creating and shaping the CAVR...

This paper aims to explore initiatives in dealing with the past in South East Europe, particularly with regard to archives, and to reflect on discussions about the documentation of atrocities and sufferings and the shift from war to peace, ongoing in the Balkan countries affected by the 1991–1999 wars while the countries are still struggling to find the best way(s) to deal with the past and its consequences. Transitional justice may be framed as opening up different approaches to create...

The article presents the various points of view regarding the definitions and uses of records and archives amongst the recordkeeping scholarly and practitioner communities. It demonstrates that whereas records and archives are useful tools for facilitating transparency, accountability and good governance in society, they could be used as instruments of repression and human rights abuses. Attempts made by various regimes to destroy evidence documented in records to conceal actions related to...

L’Instance Equité et Réconciliation (IER) a relayé et amplifié un travail de mémoire qui avait été engagé par la société marocaine depuis des années. L’auteur, ancien membre de l’IER, présente les nombreuses questions auxquelles s’est trouvée confrontée cette instance, chargée à la fois d’établir la vérité sur les violations des droits de l’Homme intervenues au Maroc pendant près d’un demi-siècle, d’en expliquer le contexte et d’en préserver la mémoire : question des témoignages oraux, de...

Le devenir des archives dans les régimes post autoritaires ; Le rapport sur les archives des anciens régimes répressifs, préparé pour l’UNESCO et le Conseil International des Archives en 1996, a souligné l’importance cruciale de la conservation de ces documents puisqu’ils servent autant à la défense des personnes affectées par ces régimes qu’à la consolidation de la démocratie et à la reconstruction de la cohésion sociale. Comme la conservation des archives de la répression conditionne...

Alors qu’il touchait à sa fin, le procès de l’ex-président serbe devant le Tribunal pénal international pour l’ex-Yougoslavie (TPIY) a été interrompu par la mort de l’accusé, privant victimes et juges du verdict final. En l’absence de dénouement judiciaire, les archives du procès revêtent donc une importance particulière. L’auteur en décrit la composition, la conservation et l’exploitation et il s’interroge sur l’impact qu’on peut en attendre dans la construction de la mémoire collective et...

Devant l’impossibilité de reconstituer par les archives écrites la réalité des crimes commis au Rwanda, l’auteur souligne l’importance des témoignages oraux, seuls à faire apparaître le rôle du gouvernement intérimaire dans l’incitation des populations civiles à commettre un génocide. Il met en garde contre les effets pervers de la chasse aux documents lancée après les massacres, hors de tout contrôle et sans assurance de préservation, par de multiples acteurs désireux de mobiliser l’opinion...