Q&A: The civil servant documenting sexual violence in Sudan’s conflict - The New Humanitarian (The New Humanitarian, 2023)
Support for survivors is limited and the majority of cases aren’t reported.
Sudan
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Can the tech industry hit the human rights refresh button? - Geneva Solutions - Arseni, Maurizio (Geneva Solutions, 2023)
On 4 July, the Human Rights Council will hear a report providing recommendations for protocol and standard settings in new technologies. We speak to the head of the team engaging with business and pushing for greater awareness of human rights implications from the fast-evolving sector.
Ireland
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Investigative Outlet Sets Key Test For Media Freedom In S.Africa | Barron's - Rambourd, Gerdense (Barron's, 2023)
The amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism draws its name from the Zulu word for dung beetle – a diligent species that fulfils a crucial role. The tiny South African non-profit specialises in delving into political corruption – "digging dung and fertilizing democracy," its editor-in-chief, Sam Sole, said with a chuckle in a recent interview with AFP.
South Africa
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Māori most at risk of declining civil and political human rights - Finlay Dunseath, Stuff (Māori Television, 2023)
The Human Rights Commission's Claire Charters (pictured in 2021) said the data painted a dire picture of the upholding of Māori civil rights.
New Zealand
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Indigenous Justice and a New Path for Canada’s Prisons - Rolston, Simon (The Tyee, 2023)
A report offers a blueprint for fixing Indigenous overrepresentation in jails.
Canada
Keywords: 2023-06 June

NRM in York to record history of LGBTQ+ railway workers - BBC News (BBC News, 2023)
The National Railway Museum is interviewing LGBTQ+ railway workers for an oral history project.
United Kingdom
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Supreme Court rejects Navajo Nation’s water rights trust claim - KickingWoman, Kolby (ICT News (Indian Country Today), 2023)
Arizona v. Navajo Nation is the final federal Indian law case to be ruled on by the high court this term
United States of America
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Amid Guatemala’s faltering democracy, a battle to remember its painful past - Geneva Solutions - Langrand, Michelle (Geneva Solutions, 2023)
As Guatemalans head to the polls on Sunday, decades of struggle for justice for atrocities committed during the civil war hang in the balance. Paulo Estrada Velásquez was one year and 20 days old when his father went missing on 19 May 1984 in Guatemala. No more than a month later, his uncle would also vanish. They were both members of Guatemala’s communist party, Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo, and two of around 40,000 people who were forcibly disappeared during Guatemala’s civil war.
Guatemala
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Sierra Leone has been at peace for 20 years after a brutal civil war - what went right - Mammone, Christina (The Conversation, 2023)
Transitional justice contributed greatly to the peace which Sierra Leone has experienced in the last two decades.
Sierra Leone
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Anger in Japan as report reveals children were forcibly sterilised - McCurry, Justin (The Guardian, 2023)
Between 1948 and 1996, about 16,500 people were operated on without their consent under a eugenics law, triggering long campaign for redress.
Japan
Keywords: 2023-06 June; Asia Pacific; Japan; World news

Executed Women Haunt, Inspire Iranian Baha'is 40 Years Later. - Agence France-Presse (VOA News, 2023)
One by one, the 10 women, mostly aged under 30, went defiantly to their deaths by hanging in a city square in Shiraz in southern Iran. The youngest was only 17 years old.
Iran, Islamic Republic of
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Officials crack down on fake Alaska Native art - Brooks, James (ICT News (Indian Country Today), 2023)
It’s a federal crime to sell art that is falsely marketed as created by an Alaska Native or tribal citizen
United States
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Vancouver’s development destroyed Burrard Inlet. Tsleil-Waututh Nation is determined to save it - Cruickshank, Ainslie (The Narwhal, 2023)
The inlet has slowly suffocated under the weight of the cities and industries built up around it. But it is resilient, and the nation sees what this once bountiful waterway could be again.
Canada
Keywords: 2023-06 June

In Montana, 16 young Americans are fighting for their environmental rights - LeParmentier, Arnaud (Le Monde.fr, 2023)
In a landmark trial, the plaintiffs testified to the deterioration of their daily lives while advocating for their constitutional right to a 'clean and healthful environment.'
Unites States of America
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Israeli settlers rampage through Palestinian village after Hamas shooting - Rubin, Shira; Taha, Sufian (The Washington Post, 2023)
Armed Israeli settlers rampaged through a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday afternoon, leaving at least one Palestinian dead and 12 injured a day after four Israelis were killed by Hamas gunmen near an Israeli settlement.
Palestine (permanent observer to the UN)
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Ottawa releases action plan to implement UNDRIP, despite calls for more consultation | CBC News - Taylor, Stephanie (CBC News, 2023)
The federal government has released its action plan on implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Canada
Keywords: 2023-06 June; United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Colombian Truth Commission: Switzerland retains archive copy - The Federal Council (Confédération Suisse - Conseil fédéral, 2023)
At its meeting on 21 June, the Federal Council approved an agreement to retain a digital backup copy of the archives of the Colombian Truth Commission. Dealing with the past is a key focus area of Switzerland's long-standing peace policy work in Colombia. In safeguarding such sensitive data, Switzerland is supporting the peace process in the long term.
Colombia
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Trinidad and Tobago's femicide crisis - Timerman, Jordana (Just Caribbean Updates, 2023)
Trinidad and Tobago’s femicide rates are at an all time high, reports the Guardian. “As of May, this year’s death toll was at 280, already overtaking the same period of 2022 – a year which saw 614 violent deaths.” The trend is part of a broader increase in homicides and crime — the Caribbean nation, with a population of about 1.5 million, now has the sixth-highest crime rate in the world.
Trinidad and Tobago
Keywords: 2023-06 June

This time it’s different? The rush to mine Indigenous lands - Trahant, Mark (ICT News (Indian Country Today), 2023)
The Aspen Institute: The mining industry has a long history of failing to respect community interests, breaking agreements, destroying sacred sites, and forcing displacements. Indigenous communities have been ‘disproportionately impacted’.
United States
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Biden and Modi must address grave human rights concerns - Amnesty International (Amnesty International, 2023)
The United States and Indian governments must address the grave human rights issues in both countries during Prime Minister Modi’s meeting with President Biden in Washington DC, said Amnesty International ahead of the state visit this week.
India
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Stop harassing and arbitrarily arresting Afghans seeking refuge - Amnesty International (Amnesty International, 2023)
The situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan is not receiving due international attention.
Pakistan
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Norway: Europe's largest onshore wind farm continues operations despite Supreme Court ruling that found permits violate indigenous Sámi rights; incl. company responses - Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, 2023)
In October 11 2021, the Supreme Court of Norway ruled that Norway violated the rights of the Sámi people by permitting the construction of wind farms in Fovsen Njaarke, the Storheia wind farm and the Roan wind farm.
Norway
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Myanmar: Junta Blocks Lifesaving Cyclone Aid - Human Rights Watch (Human Rights Watch, 2023)
The Myanmar junta’s increasing obstruction of humanitarian aid in the month since Cyclone Mocha has put thousands of lives at immediate risk and endangered millions of people.
Myanmar
Keywords: 2023-06 June

France to shut down activist climate group after clashes with police - News Wires (France 24, 2023)
The French government said Tuesday that it would soon shut down an activist climate group over a series of recent demonstrations including one that led to fierce clashes with police over a controversial irrigation project.
France
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Eswatini: Authorities must stop using the courts to intimidate and harass union leaders - Amnesty International (Amnesty International, 2023)
Ahead of the court appearance of Sticks Nkambule, Secretary General of Swaziland Transport Communication and Allied Workers Union, on trumped-up charges of contempt of court stemming from his involvement in organizing a stay away action in December 2022, Vongai Chikwanda, Amnesty International’s Interim Deputy Director for Southern Africa, said: The harassment and intimidation of Sticks Nkambule shows that Eswatini authorities are effectively criminalizing peaceful dissent.
Eswatini
Keywords: 2023-06 June

The future of conservation in Canada depends on Indigenous protected areas. So what are they? - Cyca, Michell (The Narwhal, 2023)
Canada’s climate commitments rest in Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas — often called IPCAs. While the concept isn’t new, it’s gaining better recognition and funding from, at least, some governments
Canada
Keywords: 2023-06 June

The Observers - In Sudan, a citizen initiative monitors ceasefire violations - Observers Team (The Observers - France 24, 2023)
Several ceasefires have been announced between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since the start of the conflict in Sudan. However, numerous breaches of these agreements have been reported by a network of activists who monitor the violations perpetrated by both sides in the conflict, endangering the lives of civilians.
Sudan
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Indigenous searchers turned to sacred ritual - The Associated Press (ICT News (Indian Country Today), 2023)
Indigenous men who were among search teams hoping to find four children aboard a plane that crashed in the Amazon jungle in Colombia say one of their most sacred rituals played a role in rescue efforts.
Columbia
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Venezuela accused of crimes against humanity in Argentine court - Timerman, Jordana (Latin America Daily Briefing, 2023)
A legal complaint filed in Argentina accuses Venezuelan security forces of crimes against humanity against government opponents since 2014.
Argentina
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Saudi Arabia: Imminent execution of seven young men would violate kingdom’s promise to abolish death penalty for juveniles - Amnesty International (Amnesty International, 2023)
Despite the Saudi authorities’ commitment to end their use of the death penalty against children under 18 at the time of the crime, seven young men are at risk of imminent execution after an appeals court confirmed their punishment, Amnesty International said today. Their execution would mark a chilling escalation of the already record-breaking use of the death penalty with the number of executions in the country having increased seven-fold in the past three years alone. “Saudi authorities have promised to limit the use of the death penalty and adopted legal reforms that prohibit the execution of people who were children at the time of the crime. If the authorities wish any of those promises to be taken seriously, they should order an immediate halt to the planned execution of the seven, who were all children at the time of their arrest,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Director.
Saudi Arabia
Keywords: 2023-06 June

DR Congo: Armed group attacks displace nearly 1 million since January - United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) (UN News, 2023)
Escalating violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has displaced nearly one million people since January, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Thursday.
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Inuit pride becomes an annual tradition - Wright, Trevor (APTN News, 2023)
Inuit pride parades became a new tradition since 2021 and LGBTQ+ people say it's made a huge improvement in feeling accepted.
Canada
Keywords: 2023-06 June; LGBTQ+

France says uncovers major disinformation campaign waged by Russia - News Wires (France 24, 2023)
France on Tuesday said it had uncovered a major Russian disinformation campaign, with false news items hostile to Ukraine made to look like they were published by prominent French news media.
France
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Old criminal records in New York would be automatically sealed under bill passed by lawmakers - Jamaica Gleaner (Jamaica Gleaner, 2023)
New Yorkers who commit crimes could have their records automatically sealed if they stay out of trouble for a certain number of years after they have finished serving their sentences under a bill passed by state lawmakers Friday.
United States
Keywords: 2023-06 June

After yet another murder, Italy moves to boost laws protecting women - Carbonaro, Guilia (euronews, 2023)
After the latest murder of a woman by her partner, Italy is revisiting its laws protecting women from gender-based violence. But experts say new legislative measures are not what the country needs.
Italy
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Aid group provides drinking water after Kakhovska dam blast - Churm, Philip Andrew (euronews, 2023)
Volunteers from a humanitarian group in Ukraine provide thousands of litres of clean drinking water to people affected by the Kakhovska dam blast.
Ukraine
Keywords: 2023-06 June

RAF veteran wrongly believed to be gay loses employment tribunal over 1975 discharge - Morris, Steven (The Guardian, 2023)
Cpl Sean Walsh claimed he was discriminated against at time when gay people were barred from armed forces
United Kingdom
Keywords: 2023-06 June; Discrimination at work; Employment law; Employment tribunals; LGBTQ+ rights; Military; Ministry of Defence; UK news

Oxford University appoints UK’s first professor of LGBTQ+ history - Weale, Sally (The Guardian, 2023)
Matt Cook, who has written on queer urban life and the Aids crisis, takes up the new post at Mansfield College.
United Kingdom
Keywords: 2023-06 June; Education; Higher education; LGBTQ+ rights; UK news; Universities; University of Oxford

1,200 Jamaicans received expungement of criminal records last year - Jamaica Gleaner (Jamaica Gleaner, 2023)
The Ministry of Justice received 2,322 applications for the expungement of criminal records last year. Making his contribution to the Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday Portfolio Minister, Delroy Chuck, said of that amount, the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Board approved 1,200 applications.
Jamaica
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Indigenous and local communities are getting land back - Aquino, Lyric (ICT News, 2023)
Between 2015 and 2020, Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, along with small, local communities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, gained legal recognition to more than 247 million acres of land — an 85 percent increase. That’s according to a new report from Rights and Resources Initiative, a global nonprofit focused on land and resource rights.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene can save 1.4 million lives per year, says new WHO report - World Health Organisation (World Health Organisation, 2023)
Half of the world’s population still does not have adequate access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) which could have prevented at least 1.4 million deaths and 74 million disability-adjusted life years in 2019, according to the latest report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and an accompanying article published in The Lancet.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Legal protection essential for people displaced by climate change: UN expert | UN News - United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) (UN News, 2023)
An independent UN-appointed climate expert on Tuesday called for full legal protection to be given to those displaced by the impacts of climate change, to guarantee their human rights.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Art and heritage groups must ‘take action now’ to protect culture against climate change, report says - Voon, Claire (The Art Newspaper - International art news and events, 2023)
Authors of a new report from the the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation and the National Endowment for the Humanities say climate change is the most significant threat in conservation.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

A hundred years of striving for equality at global bodies - Dubraz-Dobias, Paule (Geneva Solutions, 2023)
Since the establishment of international organisations, women have struggled to get the deserved recognition, pay and respect for their work as civil servants amid historical, cultural and political constraints. A Genevan historian tells us more.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Archives and the fight against impunity - Boel, Jens (OpenGlobalRights, 2023)
Archives can be—and often are—instrumental in the fight against impunity.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Key figures: Number of refugees, displaced people hits record high worldwide - News Wires (France 24, 2023)
On World Refugee Day 2023, the numbers of refugees and displaced people worldwide are higher than ever before. FRANCE 24 takes a look at the key figures.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June; Displaced people

Activists say the human rights movement is failing - Toosi, Nahal (POLITICO, 2023)
At the Oslo Freedom Forum, dissidents and rights defenders seek solidarity as their movements struggle.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

African delegation tells Putin 'war must' end, Russia says 'open to dialogue' - News Wires (France 24, 2023)
A delegation of African leaders including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg on Saturday as part of its mission to try to broker peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv. The meeting comes a day after the delegation met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and as Putin confirmed that he has deployed tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded.
Africa
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Nine out of 10 people are biased against women, UN report finds - Woodyatt, Amy (CNN, 2023)
Almost nine out of 10 people hold “fundamental biases” against women, a new UN report has found, decrying a “decade of stagnation” that has led to a dismantling of women’s rights in many parts of the world.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

EU: European Parliament adopts ban on facial recognition but leaves migrants, refugees and asylum seekers at risk - Amnesty International (Amnesty International, 2023)
EU: European Parliament adopts ban on facial recognition but leaves migrants, refugees and asylum seekers at risk. Responding to the European Parliament’s decision to ban invasive mass surveillance technologies in its Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), Mher Hakobyan, Advocacy Advisor on AI Regulation said: “We welcome the European Parliament’s decision to adopt a ban on abusive mass surveillance technology in today’s landmark vote. However, it is essential the Parliament and EU Member States ensure that development, sale, use and export of facial recognition and other mass surveillance technologies are banned in the final AI Act during upcoming negotiations.
Europe
Keywords: 2023-06 June

UNHCR calls for concerted action as forced displacement hits new high of 110 million | UN News - United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) (UN News, 2023)
The full-scale war in Ukraine, alongside other conflict and climate-driven upheaval, meant more people than ever remained uprooted from their homes last year, heightening the urgency for immediate, collective action to alleviate the global crisis, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Wednesday.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

No progress on biases against women during past decade, UN reports - News Wires (France 24, 2023)
Data tracking biases against women has shown no progress over the past decade, with prejudices remaining "deeply embedded" in society despite rights campaigns such as MeToo, a UN report said Monday.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

UN chief calls for new era of social media integrity in bid to stem misinformation - UN News (UN News, 2023)
Countries must address the “grave global harm” caused by the proliferation of hate and lies online, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday, launching a key report designed to shore up information integrity on digital platforms.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Pandemic treaty talks: Is there room for Indigenous knowledge? - Geneva Solutions - Dupraz-Dobias, Paula (Geneva Solutions, 2023)
Even as global temperatures rose at increasingly alarming rates, it took years before anyone began to listen to their message. Yet year after year, representatives of Indigenous communities attended global climate and biodiversity summits, striving to share their experience with climate change and their traditional knowledge as guardians of vast natural areas. Three years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, it could seem like a case of déjà-vu. In spite of being the most affected by the hea
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June; Pandemic

Where it's a crime to be gay: A visual guide to where LGBTQ+ rights are repressed - Hjelmgaard, Kim; Zarracina, Javier (USA TODAY, 2023)
Uganda enacted one of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world. See where sexual and gender minority rights are criminalized.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Regulation essential to curb AI for surveillance, disinformation: rights experts - UN News (UN News, 2023)
Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered spyware and disinformation is on the rise, and regulation of the space has become urgent, according to UN-appointed independent rights experts.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Information Integrity on Digital Platforms - United Nations (United Nations, 2023)
Digital platforms are crucial tools that have trans- formed social, cultural and political interactions everywhere. Across the world, they connect concerned global citizens on issues that matter. Platforms help the United Nations to inform and engage people directly as we strive for peace, dig- nity and equality on a healthy planet. They have given people hope in times of crisis and struggle, amplified voices that were previously unheard and breathed life into global movements.
Worlwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June; Artificial Intelligence; Information integrity

A Decade of Stagnation: New UNDP data shows gender biases remain entrenched - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (UN News, 2023)
The latest Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) report has revealed no improvement in biases against women in a decade, with almost 9 out of 10 men and women worldwide still holding such biases today. Half of people worldwide still believe men make better political leaders than women, and more than 40 percent believe men make better business executives than women. A staggering 25 percent of people believe it is justified for a man to beat his wife, according to the new GSNI report launched by UNDP.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC announces launch of advanced evidence submission platform: OTPLink - ICC Office of the Prosecutor (International Criminal Court, 2023)
I am pleased to announce the launch of OTPLink, a new application for online and email-based evidence submissions by all external stakeholders and witnesses to my Office. OTPLink will provide a clear, single-access point, replacing various systems and processes that were previously in use for the receipt of information, including submissions pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Mechanism Information Programme launches Guide for History Teachers - UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals; EuroClio (UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, 2023)
Today, the Mechanism Information Programme for Affected Communities (MIP) was pleased to launch its latest informational product, entitled: Guide for History Teachers: How to Use Archival Material of the ICTY and Mechanism in Teaching the History of the 1990s conflicts (Guide).
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Conference - 2023 International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries, and Museums - Textile society of America (TextileSocietyofAmerica, 2023)
The 2023 International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries, and Museums will take place October 24-26 at the four-star Omni Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City. Join tribal cultural leaders, federal agencies, funders, and others to discuss the most relevant topics related to preserving and advancing Native languages, culture, and life ways.
Worldwide
Keywords: 2023-06 June

Exhibition - The Fury by Shirin Neshat | Until 2023-08-20 - Neshat, Shirin (PHI Centre, 2023)
The Fury, created by Shirin Neshat, is a two-part narrative that takes the audience through the emotional turmoil experienced by the Iranian protagonist. The artwork is presented through a two-channel video and a virtual reality work. In a highly fictionalized and stylized approach, The Fury explores the sexual exploitation of female political prisoners, referencing the Islamic Republic of Iran's brutal treatment of political prisoners.
Iran, Islamic Republic of
Keywords: 2023-06 June

OHCHR | Promoting Environmental Democracy: Procedural elements of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment - OHCHR Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment (OHCHR, 2023)
Background Promoting Environmental Democracy: Procedural elements of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment

OHCHR | Call for inputs – Transitional justice measures and the legacy of human rights violations in colonial contexts - OHCHR Special Rapporteur on truth, justice and reparation (OHCHR, 2021)
Objective of the report In the report, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence examines the question of the adoption of transitional justice measures to address the legacy of serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed in colonial contexts.

ICRC | Call for comments: Guiding Principles for the Dignified Management of the Dead in Humanitarian Emergencies and to Prevent them Becoming Missing Persons - ICRC (2021)

By-Laws for the section on Archives and Human Rights - ICA Executive Board (2019)

News from the ICA Section on Archives and Human Rights - 2023-01 (January) - Peterson, Trudy Huskamp (ICA, 2023)

News from the ICA Section on Archives and Human Rights - 2022-12 (December) - Peterson, Trudy Huskamp (ICA, 2022)

News from the ICA Section on Archives and Human Rights - 2022-11 (November) - Peterson, Trudy Huskamp (ICA, 2022)

Filing the world: Archives as cultural heritage and the power of remembering - Ghezzi, Agnese (International Journal of Constitutional Law, 2022)
Other Publications

Historical Memory in the Digital Age: In Guatemala, truthtellers and preservers of the past face renewed hostility. Digitization projects help safeguard the archives of state violence - Alvarado, Daniel; Juárez, Carlos; Gettleson, Brie (NACLA Report on the Americas, 2021)

Archives and Transitional Justice in Chile: A Crucial Relationship - Ferrara, Anita (Human Rights Review, 2021)
Other Publications

Non-recurrence, reconciliation, and transitional justice: situating accountability in Northern Ireland’s oral history archive - Kinder, Eliscia (International Journal of Human Rights, 2021)
Other Publications

Playing with Marked Cards, or Using Documents as a Tool for Historical Manipulation: the Case of Russian 'Archive Websites' - Zawistowski, Andrzej (Institute of European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, 2021)
Can genuine archival documents be used to manipulate our knowledge of the past? Of course, only three steps suffice: restrict historians' access to archives, select sources according to a desired premise and make sure your message reaches a wide audience, especially non-historians.
Other Publications

War and Women's Human Rights Museum: Archives are Key - Jihyun, Youn (Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management, 2020)
Other Publications

Advancing Global Accountability: The Role of Universal Jurisdiction in Prosecuting International Crimes - Varney, Howard; Zduńczyk, Katarzyna (RESEARCH REPORT, 2020)

Community-Based Transitional Justice Via the Creation and Consumption of Digitalized Storytelling Archives: A Case Study of Belfast’s Prisons Memory Archive - Anderson, Michelle (International Journal of Transitional Justice, 2019)
Other Publications

Oral History and Collective Memory: Documenting Refugee Voices and the Challenges of Archival Representation - Dudman, Paul (Atlanti, 2019)

Postcolonial Archives and the Question of Justice - Richards, Jill (The Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry, 2019)

Digital LGBTQ archives as sites of public memory and pedagogy - Van Haitsma, Pamela (Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 2019)
Other Publications

Determining the fate of missing persons: The importance of archives for “dealing with the past” mechanisms - Baumgartner, Elisabeth; Ott, Lisa (International Review of the Red Cross, 2017)
Other Publications

Documentation, Human Rights and Transitional Justice - Baumgartner, Elisabeth; Hamber, Brandon; Jones, Briony; Kelly, Gráinne; Oliveira, Ingrid (Journal of Human Rights Practice, 2016)
The role of testimony and documentation is crucial to human rights work in transitional contexts. Such evidence is vital in societies seeking to deal with a pas
Other Publications

Truth Commission Archives as ‘New Democratic Spaces’: Table 1. - Jones, Briony; Oliveira, Ingrid (Journal of Human Rights Practice, 2016)
Other Publications

Treading the ground of contested memory: archivists and the human rights movement in Chile - Strauss, Amanda (Archival Science, 2015)
This article proposes a new definition of social justice that is based in liberation theology. It questions the relationship between archival practice and social justice and asks how (and whether) social justice can (or should be) a transformative force in the archival profession. These theoretical questions are examined through a case study of human rights archives. The author travelled to Chile in December 2011 to interview archivists and human rights activists and visit human rights archives, museums, and memorials. The article identifies three archival processes by which archivists in Chile engage in social justice activism: the act of documenting human rights violations that dictator Augusto Pinochet perpetrated during his rule from 1973 to 1990; by continually acquiring new documents that bear witness to these violations; and by providing, indeed encouraging and promoting, access to these materials. The article argues that the way that human rights archivists carry out these archival processes allows the community to participate in building both the archives and the memory of the dictatorship. It concludes by stating that this connection between the archives and the community is one of the primary ways in which social justice can be integrated into the archival profession.
Other Publications
Keywords: A&DwP website; Chile; Human rights; Liberation theology; Memory; Social justice

Stewarding Collections of Trauma: Plurality, Responsibility, and Questions of Action - Nathan, Lisa P.; Shaffer, Elizabeth; Castor, Maggie (Archivaria, 2015)
There are dedicated efforts around the world to steward material related to human atrocities, with aspirations to acknowledge, learn from, and perhaps lessen the probability of further harm. Yet for the archivists charged with stewarding these collections, there remain ethically fraught questions of how to do this work. Through this article, we identify systemic, structural challenges that confront efforts to ethically steward collections of trauma. Our scholarly reflections are grounded in the context of an institution being created to hold materials related to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). We reflect on ongoing discussions with those involved in the inception and development of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) and our review of court documents and media accounts related to the TRC and development of the NCTR. We call attention to the assemblage of socio-technical, political, and legal forces that influence the actions of those managing collections of trauma. We highlight how those involved in the NCTR’s development are participants in and descendants of Canada’s legacy of colonizing initiatives (as are we, researchers studying the NCTR’s development). To support those facing questions of action in this complicated space, we draw on the work of Iris Marion Young to inform archivists’ practice related to the issues of conflict, plurality, agency, and distrust that underlie the design and management of collections of trauma.RÉSUMÉDes efforts consciencieux sont faits à travers le monde pour préserver la documentation liée aux atrocités humaines, dans le but de les reconnaître, d’en apprendre, et peut-être aussi de diminuer la probabilité de futurs torts. Pourtant, pour les archivistes chargés de sauvegarder ces collections, il demeure des questions épineuses sur le plan éthique par rapport aux façons d’accomplir ce travail. Dans cet article nous identifions des défis systémiques et structurels qui entravent les efforts de préserver éthiquement ces collections de trauma. Nos réflexions critiques sont ancrées dans le contexte d’une institution qui se constitue pour conserver le matériel lié à la Commission de vérité et réconciliation (CVR) du Canada. Nous examinons les discussions qui se poursuivent avec les personnes impliquées dans la création et le développement du Centre national pour la vérité et la réconciliation (CNVR), ainsi que notre étude des documents présentés en cour et des reportages des médias portant sur la CVR et le développement du CNVR. Nous signalons l’assemblage de forces socio-techniques, politiques et légales qui ont eu une influence sur les agissements des personnes qui gèrent des collections de trauma. Nous accentuons comment les personnes impliquées dans le développement du CNVR sont des participants dans les initiatives de colonisation du Canada, tout en étant les descendants de cet héritage colonisateur (comme nous le sommes aussi en tant que chercheurs étudiant le développement du CNVR). Afin d’appuyer celles et ceux qui sont confrontés aux questions d’action dans cet espace compliqué, nous nous inspirons du travail d’Iris Marion Young pour éclairer les pratiques des archivistes face aux questions de conflit, de pluralité, de l’exercice du pouvoir personnel et de méfiance qui sont sous-jacentes à la conceptualisation et à la gestion des collections de trauma.
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Keywords: A&DwP website

“Justice delayed is justice denied”: Records management and the travesty of justice in South Africa - Makhubela, Salmon; Ngoepe, Mpho (Records Management Journal, 2015)
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the cases of “delayed and denied” justice that resulted from a lack of or poor record-keeping in the South African courts and police service with a view to encouraging proper records management. Proper records management plays a significant role in supporting the justice system. Records provide the critical evidence that a particular action or transaction took place and can be used as evidence in a court of law. Without reliable and authentic records, government cannot administer justice and, as a result, offenders can be set free while the victims are denied justice. Design/methodology/approach – Utilising content analysis, this study extracted print media articles (2000-2012) relating to the “records and justice system” from the South African Media database, which is one of the databases hosted by the South African Bibliographic and Information Network. The study selected cases reported in the media to conduct follow-up interviews with a policeman, lawyer and judge to discover the implications of the unavailability of required records in court cases. Furthermore, access was given to three selected cases that were given high profile in the media and these cases were analysed to find out what the final verdict in each case was. Findings – Results of the study suggest that some criminal cases were withdrawn due to missing dockets or cases not properly registered. In some instances, records were reconstructed, resulting in the travesty of justice. The study concludes by arguing that if records are not accounted for, lawyers, prosecutors and magistrates could dispute the authenticity of records. As a result, justice for victims would be delayed and ultimately denied while the perpetrators are freed. Research limitations/implications – The findings and recommendations of this study may go a long way in helping courts in South Africa to manage records properly to support the justice system. Furthermore, the study is a useful compilation of the importance of missing records for social purposes. Originality/value – In an attempt to show the role of records management in the administration of justice in South Africa, this study used a triangulation of data collection tools. This is a new attempt, especially in the South African context. Previous studies in southern Africa only looked at the management of records in supporting justice system.
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Keywords: A&DwP website; Human rights; Justice; Record keeping; Records management; South Africa

Reclaiming erased lives: archives, records and memories in post-war Bosnia and the Bosnian diaspora - Halilovich, Hariz (Archival Science, 2014)
In this paper, based on conventional and digital ethnography, I first identify three dominant research areas relating to the issues of destruction, use and abuse of archives and records in post-war Bosnia, and discuss their legal, political and ethical dimensions. I then go on to present two ethnographies describing how survivors of ‘ethnic cleansing’ and genocide in Bosnia and in the Bosnian refugee diaspora perceive, experience and deal with missing personal records and material evidence of their histories, as well as how they (re)create their own archives and memories, and in the process reassert their ‘erased’ identities in both real and cyber space. This paper also describes how contemporary technologies—including biomedical technology and information and communication technology—impact the reconstruction of individual and collective identities in shattered Bosnian families and communities in the aftermath of genocide. The ethnographies described point to the novel contribution that these technologies have made to re-humanising both those who perished and the survivors of the war in Bosnia.
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Keywords: A&DwP website; Archives; Bosnia; Cyber villages; DNA; Diaspora; Genocide

Antonyms of our remembering - Harris, Verne (Archival Science, 2014)
There are strong dominant discourses across the intersecting spacings of transitional justice, ‘human rights archives’, and reckoning with the past. The power of these discourses can close down non-orthodox perspectives and fresh lines of enquiry. The dual goals of the paper are to identify such lines of enquiry and tease out loose threads in the dominant discourses. The result is a provocation ranging from the experiences of the Nelson Mandela Foundation to the work of deconstruction, from queer theory to legal scholarship, and from personal narrative to documentary film-making. The paper is at once a troubling of dominant discourses and a play with the antonyms of remembering in these discourses.
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Keywords: A&DwP website; Community; Deconstruction; Healing; Memory; Spectrality; Transitional justice; Truth commissions

Moving past: probing the agency and affect of recordkeeping in individual and community lives in post-conflict Croatia - J. Gilliland, Anne (Archival Science, 2014)
Reporting on ongoing research, this paper reviews stories, drawn from recent literature as well as gathered through ethnographic research, that people tell about records and recordkeeping during and since the Yugoslav Wars. It focuses on what these stories reveal of the agency and affect of recordkeeping in individual and community lives, particularly in Croatia. The paper concludes with a contemplation of what might be learned from such an approach for the development of recordkeeping infrastructures that can anticipate, avert or alleviate some of the ways in which records and recordkeeping continue to traumatize or target the vulnerable, and frustrate and prevent the human and societal need to “move forward,” if not “move past.”
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Keywords: A&DwP website

Break the rules, save the records: human rights archives and the search for justice in East Timor - Robinson, Geoffrey (Archival Science, 2014)
How do distinctive historical experiences and political regimes shape human rights archives? How do those archives and those experiences in turn influence the way painful pasts are remembered or forgotten? And what can historical accounts tell us about the wisdom of prevailing norms and practices regarding the management and control of human rights records? This paper explores these questions through a close analysis of the history and politics of the principal archive documenting human rights abuse in East Timor. It underscores the work of archival studies scholars who argue that human rights archives are always in some degree shaped by the historical and political context in which they emerge and that conflicts over matters of content, mandate, and rules of access are virtually inevitable. Noting that such conflicts typically pit political authorities against victims and their advocates, it argues that successful human rights archival programs hinge critically on sensitive historical and political analysis and that, under certain conditions, human rights archivists should play a more active role in facilitating the pursuit of justice for victims of human rights abuse. It also makes the case for a move away from large, state-controlled archives toward multiple, smaller archives with varied mandates. Finally, it proposes the adoption of a new hierarchy of interest in the management of archives; away from the long-accepted principles of national sovereignty and inalienability, and in the direction of access to the survivors of human rights violations and their advocates.
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Keywords: A&DwP website; Archives; East Timor; Human rights; Inalienability; Justice; National interest; Records; Secrecy; Security; Timor Leste; Truth commissions

Stories for Hope–Rwanda: a psychological–archival collaboration to promote healing and cultural continuity through intergenerational dialogue - Wallace, David A.; Pasick, Patricia; Berman, Zoe; Weber, Ella (Archival Science, 2014)
Can archives help heal and extend the benefit of therapeutic interventions in a post-genocide environment? We sought to probe this question through an uncommon collaborative documentation and research project linking psychology and archival science: Stories for Hope–Rwanda (SFH). This intergenerational dialogue project between youth and elder pairs in post-genocide Rwanda draws upon a collective narrative model from psychology and both community and participatory models from archives. The paper reports on three aspects of this endeavor: (1) description of SFH as a process of dialogue generation and archiving; (2) content analysis of the knowledge post-genocide youth sought from their elders; and (3) a qualitative evaluation of what benefits youth and elder pairs reported 6–12 months after their dialogue session, including how participants made use of a personal copy of their dialogue and their decision making and perceptions on making their dialogues more widely available. Specifically, we wanted to know whether psychological benefits would accrue if the silences about genocide could be breached by intergenerational dialogues and whether audio recordings of the dialogues archived for personal, national, and international use could motivate youths and elders over the hurdle of silence and extend the benefits of the dialogues to others. In contrast to interview-driven genocide testimonies, each youth asked an elder to answer some burning questions about the past. In response, elders were directed to share personal, true, and positively helpful stories from their past experiences. Through these efforts, SFH consciously sought to democratize the creation, control, custody, and access to the archive resulting from the recorded dialogues. Based on our analysis, we found that youth were eager to learn most about the genocide (causes, prevention, and stories of loss and survival), followed by family history, marriage, Rwandan culture, living as an orphan, and strategies for forgiveness and reconciliation. We also found that the archival component of the project significantly contributed to both the motivation for participation and the extent of participants’ healing. We conclude that this approach can be productively expanded to other post-conflict and post-genocide communities where silence about a traumatic past reigns triumphant and undermines the ability of youth to map a positive future.
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Keywords: A&DwP website; Community archiving; Genocide; Participatory archiving; Psychology; Rwanda; Trauma

Mobilizing records: re-framing archival description to support human rights - Wood, Stacy; Carbone, Kathy; Cifor, Marika; Gilliland, Anne; Punzalan, Ricardo (Archival Science, 2014)
This article seeks to raise consciousness within the field of archival studies in order to foster a generative discussion about how descriptive practices might be expanded, approached differently, or completely rethought. It brings together crosscutting theoretical issues and provides practical examples of mediation in order to mobilize these records in support of human rights work. It first problematizes the foundational archival precept of respect des fonds and its sub-principles of original order and provenance. It then analyzes the necessary transformation of institutional policies and standards in order to foster trust and transparency and identifies structural or system wide strategies for ameliorating past abuses.
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Keywords: A&DwP website; Archival description; Archival education; Archival theory; Human rights

The Admissibility of Business Records as Legal Evidence: A Review of the Business Records Exception to the Hearsay Rule in Canada - Force, Donald C. (Archivaria, 2014)
Records professionals play an important role in increasing the likelihood that business records will be admitted as evidence. This article discusses the business records exception to the hearsay rule and the ways in which business records may be tendered as evidence in Canada. By reviewing Canadian case law, the author examines several criteria that could contribute to a judge’s decision to admit a business record as evidence and identifies ways that records professionals can help their organization satisfy each of the criteria. It is argued that the act of sound and structured recordkeeping helps an organization increase the likelihood that its business records will be admitted as evidence. RÉSUMÉ Les spécialistes en gestion de l’information jouent un rôle important afin d’augmenter la probabilité que les documents d’archives des entreprises soient admis comme preuves. Cet article discute du cas des documents d’archives des entreprises comme exception à la règle et il examine les façons dont ils peuvent être mis en adjudication au Canada. En faisant l’étude de la jurisprudence canadienne, l’auteur examine plusieurs critères qui pourraient contribuer à la décision d’un juge d’admettre comme preuve un document d’archives d’entreprise et il identifie les façons dont les spécialistes en gestion de l’information peuvent venir en aide à leur organisation en satisfaisant à chacun de ces critères. L’auteur affirme qu’une gestion des documents solide et structurée permet à une institution d’augmenter la probabilité que ses documents d’archives d’entreprise soient admis comme preuve.
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Keywords: A&DwP website

Twenty years of post-apartheid archiving: have we reckoned with the past, or has the past reckoned with us? - Harris, Verne (Journal of the South African Society of Archivists, 2014)
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Keywords: A&DwP website

Archives for a Peaceful Future: Case Descriptions - Jones, Briony; Keller, Ingrid Oliveira Silva; Rubli, Sandra (2014)
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Evidence, memory, identity, and community: four shifting archival paradigms - Cook, Terry (Archival Science, 2013)
This essay argues that archival paradigms over the past 150 years have gone through four phases: from juridical legacy to cultural memory to societal engagement to community archiving. The archivist has been transformed, accordingly, from passive curator to active appraiser to societal mediator to community facilitator. The focus of archival thinking has moved from evidence to memory to identity and community, as the broader intellectual currents have changed from pre-modern to modern to postmodern to contemporary. Community archiving and digital realities offer possibilities for healing these disruptive and sometimes conflicting discourses within our profession.
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Keywords: A&DwP website; Archival theory; Community archiving; Evidence; Memory; Paradigm shifts; Professional identity

Invoking “collective memory”: mapping the emergence of a concept in archival science - Jacobsen, Trond; Punzalan, Ricardo L.; Hedstrom, Margaret L. (Archival Science, 2013)
The concept of “collective” or “social” memory has assumed increasing prominence in the discourse of archivists over the past few decades. Archives are frequently characterized as crucial institutions of social memory, and many professional activities are considered forms of memory preservation. We present a systematic examination of the relationships between archives and collective memory as articulated in the English-language archival literature. We first identify the major themes regarding collective memory and categorize archival writings into four major threads. We then analyze citations extracted from 165 articles about collective memory published between 1980 and 2010 in four leading English-language archival studies journals. We identify the most influential scholars and publications and trace the evolution of the collective memory concept in that literature. By comparing the archival literature on collective memory to that indexed in Thomson’s Web of Science and in Google Scholar, we identify specific disciplines, authors, and works that archivists working on collective memory may find useful. We find that in general the archival literature on collective memory is fairly insular and self-referential and call on archivists to actively engage other disciplines when carrying out collective memory research.
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Keywords: A&DwP website; Archives and memory; Citation analysis; Collective memory; Public memory; Social memory; Transdisciplinarity

Norwegian war children's work for justice - the role of the archives - Olsen, Kåre (Comma, 2013)
People from different weak groups struggling for justice may be dependent on archive material to document and substantiate their claims. In this paper I discuss the question of to what extent we as archivists are aware of our role as rulers of the archives. As an example, I use the Norwegian war children and the importance of information from the archives of the Norwegian National Archives for them both individually and as a group in society. I also discuss how we as Civil Servants and archivists can perform in our work in a professional way when we are aware of the potential significance our role may have for users from weak groups and their work for justice.
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Saddam Hussein's Records of Atrocity: Seizure, Removal, and Restitution - Montgomery, Bruce (The American Archivist, 2012)
Almost a decade following the 2003 American invasion of Iraq, most Iraqi state documents stemming from Saddam Hussein's regime remain in the possession of the United States. U.S. military forces seized the majority of them in the invasion and occupation for intelligence exploitation, approximately a hundred pages of records and thousands of audio- and videotapes from Hussein's various bureaucracies of repression. Another 5.5 million pages of secret police files chronicling Hussein's Anfal genocidal campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan in the middle to late 1980s also are in American hands. These were seized by Kurdish forces in the uprising in northern Iraq in March 1991 and removed by the Pentagon in 1992 and 1993 to American soil for safe storage and analysis. Moreover, in 2005, an additional seven million pages that once belonged to the Ba'ath Party and security forces were also spirited out of Iraq by military transport with the assistance of the Iraqi Memory Foundation, a private Washington, D.C.-based group that entered Iraq as an American defense contractor to preserve the records of Saddam Hussein's regime. Each of these various caches of state security documents has been removed from Iraq under highly unique circumstances as a result of internal rebellion and more than a decade of hostilities between the United States and Iraq. This article examines the circumstances surrounding these removals, their custody and use, and the status and limits of the international laws of war regarding their capture and return.
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Keywords: A&DwP website

The economics and politics of international preservation collaborations: a Malian case study - Dong, Lorraine (Archival Science, 2012)
This paper examines four economic and political themes that are relevant to international heritage preservation and archives efforts. Collaborations that involve multiple players such as industrialized nations, international heritage organizations, and postcolonial or economically developing regions will inevitably be laden with sociopolitical and economic entanglements that affect preservation outcomes and modern cultural development. Drawing on the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project in Mali for context, the paper will first discuss the infrastructural limitations that limit the progress and sustainability of projects that seek to preserve and create greater access to cultural heritage. The second critical theme is the enduring legacy of colonialism and, more specifically, the multiple concepts in Africa regarding cultural and historical evidence. The third theme is the compromise between local and global development advocates, especially in terms of agreeing on access boundaries to cultural materials. The fourth theme is the dialogue that must take place between stakeholders, especially between the host communities and supporting entities. This paper posits that it is necessary to look at the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project and other heritage preservation and archives projects by their high-level commonalities and through deeply contextualized historical lenses in order to cogently discuss the social value of these multinational projects and to help plan future collaborative efforts.
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Keywords: A&DwP website; Archives; Cultural heritage; Digitization; Mali; Preservation; Timbuktu

The practical power of human rights: how international human rights standards can inform archival and record keeping practices - Gooda, Mick (Archival Science, 2012)
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the preeminent international instrument elaborating on the rights of Indigenous peoples. It contains the minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of Indigenous peoples all over the world. As a consequence, the Declaration provides a blueprint for Indigenous peoples, governments and other third parties around the world to respect the rights and roles of Indigenous peoples within society. At its core, the Declaration is based on the principles of self-determination, good faith and participation in decision-making. In this paper, I outline how the principles of the Declaration can and should influence archival and record keeping practices. I suggest we need to harness the practical power of human rights. In exercising our right to participate in decision-making, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can demonstrate this practical power. It is critical that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are substantive and major stakeholders in determining appropriate archival and record keeping processes for Indigenous culture, cultural property and knowledge.
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Keywords: A&DwP website; Archives; Decision-making; Declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples; Human rights; Indigenous Australians; Self-determination

“Peace, order and good government”: archives in society - Wilson, Ian E. (Archival Science, 2012)
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 of archives in recent Canadian human rights issues, highlighting both the strengths and the weaknesses of the record, the perception of archives as an agency of the state and the role of archives in helping society address highly contentious issues.
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Keywords: A&DwP website; Canadian archives; Human rights; Indigenous human rights

Indigenous human rights and knowledge in archives, museums, and libraries: some international perspectives with specific reference to New Zealand and Canada - Morse, Bradford W. (Archival Science, 2012)
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 and archives as case studies, illustrating some of the key legal and practical challenges that now impinge upon the work of archivists and related professionals in many countries.
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Keywords: A&DwP website

Archives as agents of accountability and justice: an examination of the national security archive in the context pf transitional justice in Latin America. - Blanco-Rivera, Joel A (Dissertation. Graduate Faculty of School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, 2012)
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Accountability in archival science since Parkinson’s thesis - Kenosi, Lekoko (Comma, International Journal on Archives, 2012)
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Keywords: A&DwP website

Human Rights, Human Wrongs, and Archives / Derechos humanos, injusticias humanas y archivos - Peterson, Trudy Huskamp (Arch-E. Revista Andaluza de Archivos, 2012)
The focus on wrongs —evil, crimes against humanity, disappearances, genocide— and the archival records of wrongs is fundamentally important and we must not lose sight of that. But by looking at the phrase “archives and human rights” in only those terms, we miss the hugely important sets of records that are not related to State crimes, not in the hands of the state, and are vital to protect—not only to contest the loss of—human rights.
Keywords: A&DwP website

Silence, Accessibility, and Reading Against the Grain: Examining Voices of the Marginalized in the India Office Records - Sowry, Nathan (InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 2012)
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 section introduces the historical context of the attempted mutiny, questions the incomplete nature of archival and colonial records, and discusses the archivist’s responsibility to present as complete a record as possible. The second section discusses the introduction and importance of postmodern theory to the archival field. Particularly significant are arguments by practicing archivists who advocate reading records against the grain to recover voices of the marginalized, how this can be incorporated into archival practice, and the ensuing difficulties which may emerge. Finally, the third section discusses problems of access to colonial records such as those held in the India Office Records, and how the practices of digitization, international cooperation and preservation, and reading records against the grain are able to produce a plurality of voices.
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Keywords: A&DwP website

The potential and challenges of open data for crisis information management and aid efficiency - Stauffacher, Daniel; Hattotuwa, Sanjana; Weekes, Barbara (ICT for Peace Foundation, 2012)
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Keywords: A&DwP website

The Archive in the Witness: Documentation in Settings of Chronic Insecurity - Riaño-Alcalá, Pilar; Baines, Erin (International Journal of Transitional Justice, 2011)
Abstract1. Through an exchange between members of community-based organizations that document human rights violations in northwest Colombia and northern Uganda
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Toward an understanding of archives as a feature of collective memory - Josias, Anthea (Archival Science, 2011)
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 of a changing and evolving memory landscape. It acknowledges the significant gaps in the written record that are a result of apartheid practices and cites different approaches that were overlooked by apartheid’s official archival systems. This paper offers a way of contemplating the ‘social constructedness’ of collective memory and the social and political dimensions of archives.
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Keywords: Collective memory; Personal testimonies; Political transformation; Politics of memory; Social memory; South Africa

Secrets and Files: Access to Archives in Italy from WWII to the Present - Barrera, Giulia (Acervo. Revista do Arquivo Nacional, 2011)
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Admissibility of electronic documentation as evidence in U.S. courts - Thomson, Lucy L (Human Rights Electronic Evidence Study, Center for Research Libraries, 2011)
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Returning Evidence to the Scene of the Crime: Why the Anfal Files Should be Repatriated to Iraqi Kurdistan - Montgomery, Bruce P. (Archivaria, 2010)
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 late-1980s, were captured by Kurdish peshmerga in the March 1991 uprisings following the first Gulf War. They were transferred to the United States for safe storage and analysis for human rights crimes with the understanding that the documents were Kurdish property. The SAA and ACA based their statement on the archival principle of the inalienability of national records, a concept that claims that the alienation of national records can only occur through a legislative act of the state. This principle of inalienability, however, is incompatible with the laws of war that allow for the capture of state records during hostilities, conflicts with the international legal regime of human rights regarding the restitution of state security files to a repressive regime that may reuse them, and contradicts the original agreement between American and Kurdish authorities governing ownership of the Anfal files. Indeed, with the growing appearance of a new Iraqi repressive regime – with one faction ruling at the expense of the others – there is considerable danger in repatriating the Anfal files and Hussein’s archive of atrocity to the ruling theocrats in Baghdad before political reconciliation takes root. Reasons of historical patrimony and provenance also argue for the return of the Anfal documents to Iraqi Kurdistan. RÉSUMÉ Le 22 avril 2008, cinq ans après l’invasion américaine de l’Iraq, la Society of American Archivists (SAA) et l’Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) ont émis une déclaration commune demandant aux autorités américaines de rapatrier les millions de documents du renseignement saisis et d’intervenir auprès du « gouvernement du Kurdistan » afin de retourner les dossiers de l’Anfal iraquien à la Iraq National Library and Archive, à Bagdad. Les dossiers de l’Anfal, qui documentent le génocide iraquien des Kurdes durant la deuxième moitié des années 1980, avaient été saisis par les peshmergas kurdes pendant les insurrections de mars 1991 suite à la première guerre du Golfe. Ils ont été transférés aux États-Unis pour entreposage sécuritaire et pour les analyses dans l’optique des crimes contre l’humanité, tout en demeurant propriété kurde. La SAA et l’ACA ont basé leur déclaration sur le principe archivistique de l’inaliénabilité des documents nationaux, concept qui affirme que l’aliénation des documents nationaux ne peut se faire que par un acte législatif de l’état. Ce principe de l’inaliénabilité, cependant, est incompatible avec les lois de la guerre qui permettent la saisie de documents d’état pendant les hostilités; il entre en conflit avec le régime légal international en matière de droits humains au sujet de la restitution des dossiers de sécurité d’état à un régime répressif qui pourrait s’en servir à nouveau; et il contredit l’entente d’origine entre les autorités américaines et kurdes au sujet du droit de propriété des dossiers de l’Anfal. En effet, étant donné l’apparence montée d’un nouveau régime répressif en Iraq – avec une faction qui gouverne au détriment des autres – il y a un danger considérable de rapatrier les dossiers de l’Anfal et les archives des atrocités d’Hussein aux théocrates au pouvoir en Iraq avant qu’aucune réconciliation politique n’ait pu s’enraciner. Les notions de patrimoine historique et de provenance encouragent aussi le retour des documents de l’Anfal au Kurdistan iraquien.
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Archivos y derechos humanos en América. La Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos - Arias, Virginia (Comma, 2010)
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Of condors and judges: Archival musings over a judicial investigation - Barrera, Giulia (Archival Science, 2010)
(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...
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Los Archivos de Derechos Humanos en Perú - Cruz, Ruth (Comma, 2010)
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Archives against Amnesia - Peterson, Trudy Huskamp (Politorbis., 2010)
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Sites of Conscience: New Approaches to Conflicted Memory - Ševčenko, Liz (Museum International, 2010)
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.
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Memory, records, history: the Records of the Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste - Nannelli, Elizabeth (Archival Science, 2009)
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 records. It also addresses the potential influences of the CAVR records, particularly the final report, Chega!, in shaping what will be known about this period by the Timorese people. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential role of the CAVR records in contributing to the history of Timor-Leste. Although truth commissions are a problematic form of truth telling, with significant implications for the writing of history, the records of the CAVR are an invaluable source of information for Timorese history. If future users can recognize the CAVR records as the products of the context of their creation, these records will have a critical role to play in the development of history within Timor-Leste.
Other Publications
Keywords: Memory; Records; Timor-Leste; Truth commissions

Lorsque la coopération internationale s’intéresse aux archives : l’exemple de la Tunisie. - Jacobs, Christophe (Comma, International Journal on Archives, 2008)
Other Publications

Access and democratisation of information: the documentation of war atrocities by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. - Svärd, Proscovia (Comma, International Journal on Archives., 2008)
Other Publications

On dealing with the past, transitional justice and archives - Syrri, Despina (Balcanica, 2008)
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 collective memories, to share and to transfer these through time-space. New technologies used in archiving are assumed to open new avenues to democratization and accountability, in communication and free circulation of information, and to create a much broader negotiating process, with significant opportunities for the preservation of memory(ies), documentation and contestation — a far more multi-sited, multi-scalar and multi-level board where novel alliances, formations and mediations might arise. One particular case is that of the digitization and public accessibility of the tribunals’ archives, which are supposed to constitute an important legal and cultural heritage that belongs to the world community, as well as to the states and the citizens involved. The information contained in these archives is expected to be made available for new forms of use, such as scientific research and investigation by/for surviving relatives, while respecting different legal constraints. The archives would also serve the advancement of the international justice system by explaining the workings of the tribunals to the general public. Consequently the important question that arises is the ownership of these archives. The reciprocal “production” and “consumption” (shaping) of the colonial narrative of history and identity entail that the former colonizers and colonized are a community of records, sharing a common archival heritage. Therefore, what in Western archival practice is called the subject of the record has to be reconsidered as a full partner in the record-creating process, as a co-creator of the record. These archives thus seem to constitute a “joint heritage” shared by a number of “communities of records”, contributing to the possible formation of new identities and politics.
Other Publications

The Atrocity Files. Deciphering the Archives of Guatemala's Dirty War.The Atrocity Files. - Doyle, Kate; Doyle, Kate (Harper's Magazine, 2007)
Other Publications

Public Records and Archives as Tools for Good Governance: Reflections Within the Recordkeeping Scholarly and Practitioner Communities - Kemoni, Henry N.; Ngulube, Patrick; Stilwell, Christine (ESARBICA Journal: Journal of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives, 2007)
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 misuse of power and human rights abuses are highlighted. The article concludes by emphasizing the need for records and archives personnel to collaborate in order to establish good recordkeeping regimes that facilitate the exploitation and use of records and archives as tools for governance, enhancement of public service delivery and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. It is hoped that the article will stir further debate and encourage more research among recordkeeping scholars, consultants, researchers and practitioners into the use of records and archives as tools for good governance and protection of human rights.
Other Publications
Keywords: Archives; Governance; Human Rights; Recordkeeping; Records; United Nations Millennium Development Goals

Access, the democratic imperative - Ketelaar, Eric (Archives and Manuscripts, 2006)
Informit is an online service offering a wide range of database and full content publication products that deliver the vast majority of Australasian scholarly research to the education, research and business sectors. Informit encompasses online products: Informit Indexes, Informit Plus Text and Informit Collections.
Other Publications

Professional ethics and practice in archives and records management in a human rights context - Cook, Michael (Journal of the Society of Archivists, 2006)
This article contains a survey of ethical codes adopted by the Archives and Records Management (ARM) professional associations in Anglophone areas in the 1990s and notes that such codes are in effect standards to set beside other standards. The Museums Association code of ethics is compared, because it is aimed at institutions and not at individual professionals. It can be observed that institutional aims contain a strong ethical component. This is backed by procedural standards and guidelines required by new legislation in the UK (notably Freedom of Information and Data Protection). ARM professionals are faced with growing tensions in the interfaces between them and creators of records, owners of records, users and data subjects. Ethical decisions are constantly being demanded in all these areas. There is then a review of ARM responses to the human rights movement internationally, ranging from the ethical code proposed by the Quintana Report (1997), through subsequent discussions at CITRA, the Vienna Congress of the International Council on Archives (2004) and the University of Liverpool conference on archives and political pressures (2003). The article concludes by proposing that codes of ethics should be extended to direct the work of institutions as well as of individuals, that ethical principles embedded in procedural standards and guidelines should be recognised and codified, and that human rights issues should be explicitly recognised in ARM services through mission and policy statements.
Other Publications

Archives as Spaces of Memory - Ketelaar, Eric (Journal of the Society of Archivists, 2006)
The first part of this paper deals with truth, justice, memory and the role of archives. The record speaks with multiple voices through many intermediaries. Those intermediaries are the subject of the second part of the paper addressing the issue of connecting people's stories with public archives, using technologies for social navigation and ubiquitous computing which can transform archives into social spaces of memory.
Other Publications
Keywords: From the Forerunners of Document Collection to the Trial of Klaus Barbie and beyond

Archives, Truth, and Reconciliation - Sachs, Albie (Archivaria, 2006)
This lecture by Justice Albie Sachs of the South African Constitutional Court recounts his “archive fever.” Archivaria asked Verne Harris of the Nelson Mandela Foundation to prepare a short introduction. RÉSUMÉCet exposé du juge Albie Sachs de la Cour constitutionnelle de l’Afrique du Sud (South African Constitutional Court) évoque sa « fièvre des archives ». Archivaria a demandé à Verne Harris de la Fondation Nelson Mandela de préparer une brève introduction.
Other Publications

Genocidal Archives: The African Context—Genocide in Rwanda - Adami, Tom A.; Hunt, Martha (Journal of the Society of Archivists, 2005)
When looking at international criminal justice archival theory and practice, it is difficult to find many examples. There are the two current ad-hoc international criminal tribunals dealing with the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR) in The Hague, Netherlands and Arusha, Tanzania, respectively. Prior to 1993 one has to go back to the late 1940's and the Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes Trials. This article asks whether there is such a thing as international criminal justice archival theory and details several of the unique aspects of record-keeping practice in an international organisation that deals with genocide and other crimes against humanity. Much valuable and innovative work has been carried out by the staff of the records and archives unit of ICTR since 1998 and the continuation of these approaches will be vital to future similar organisations. In light of current developments to deal with the former Iraqi regime in a hybrid internatioinal and/or domestic Iraqi court, valuable lessons can be learnt from the experience of the ICTY and the ICTR.
Other Publications

Open Memory: Using inter-institutional cooperation to facilitate access to human rights. - Ferrari, Damian (New Tactics Project of the Center for Victims and Torture., 2005)
Other Publications

Oral History as a Mechanism for Dealing with the Past. - Toma, Marijana (Comma, International Journal on Archives, 2005)
Other Publications

'We must remember our past so that we do not repeat it' - Forde, Helen (Journal of the Society of Archivists, 2004)
The theme of the 2003 CITRA conference concentrated on archives and human rights and the problems associated with the status, use and collection of such archives. It provided a global view of large-scale denial of human rights, and gave insight into different views and perceptions. In the UK the issue is less the mass denial of human rights, more the recurrent denial to individuals. How does the UK measure up in terms of trying to prevent the abuse of such rights? Will the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act make a difference? Raising awareness is a first step, but more action is needed in order to avoid any repetition of past failures.
Other Publications

Fact-Finding by Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations: Challenges,Strategies, and the Shaping of Archival Evidence - Montgomery, Bruce P. (Archivaria, 2004)
Other Publications

Archives and Historical Accountability: Toward a Moral Theology of Archives - O'Toole, James (Archivaria, 2004)
Other Publications

Accountability, History, and Archives: Conflicting Priorities or Synthesized Strands? - Dirks, John M. (Archivaria, 2004)
Other Publications

The Ford Foundation's Support For Human Rights Archives. - Divack, Alan (Comma, International Journal on Archives, 2004)
Other Publications

Overcoming the apartheid legacy: the special case of the Freedom Charter - Dominy, Graham (Archival Science, 2004)
Other Publications

"Taking sides": National Archives and the defence of Human rights in a multicultural society. - Nishiguchi, Gabrielle (Comma, International Journal on Archives, 2004)
Other Publications

Prosecution and resistance, compensation and reconcilitation – two repressive systems in a country: the case of German archives - Oldenhage, Klaus (Comma, International Journal on Archives., 2004)
Other Publications

Truth and the records of truth commissions - Peterson, Trudy Huskamp (Studien und Quellen, Etudes et Sources, 2004)
Other Publications

Liberation, reconciliation and the importance of the record - Tutu, Desmond (Comma, International Journal on Archives., 2004)
Other Publications

Archives and the Public Good: Accountability and Records in Modern Society - Cox, Richard J.; Wallace, David A. (Journal of Documentation, 2003)
Other Publications
Keywords: Accountability; Archives; Records management

Presidential Materials: Politics and the Presidential Records Act - Montgomery, Bruce (The American Archivist, 2003)
President George W. Bush's Executive Order No. 13,233, issued on 1 November 2001, marked the latest attempt by the executive branch to circumvent or otherwise nullify the key provisions of the Presidential Records Act. Congress passed the Presidential Records Act in 1978 in the wake of the Watergate scandals to assure public ownership and control over presidential materials. Nonetheless, starting with the presidency of Ronald Reagan, who was the first president to be covered by the act, the executive branch has repeatedly attacked the statute through various regulatory schemes and overly broad claims of executive privilege. Indeed, with their historical reputations and legacies at stake, presidents have never fully accepted the concept of yielding control over their presidential materials. This article reviews the troubling history of the Presidential Records Act and the implications of the latest attempts to restrict access to presidential papers.
Other Publications

Stories and names: Archival description as narrating records and constructing meanings - Duff, Wendy M.; Harris, Verne (Archival Science, 2002)
The authors of this essay, coming from very different traditions and modes of archival discourse, explore together archival description as a field of archival thinking and practice. Their shared conviction is that records are always in the process of being made, and that the stories of their making are parts of bigger stories understandable only in the ever-changing broader contexts of society. The exploration begins with an interrogation of the traditional and ever-valid questions of the what and the why of archival description. Thereafter they offer a deconstruction of these questions and of the answers commonly proffered. In these sections of the essay their concern is with descriptive architecture, the analysis covering a number of specific architectures and including only oblique references to descriptive standardization. The concluding section attempts to draw out the implications of their analysis for endeavours - irrespective of the architectures being used - to define, and to justify, descriptive standards. Their call is not to dispense with standardization, but rather to create space for a liberatory approach which engages creatively the many dangers of standardization.
Other Publications

Reflections on the Goal of Archival Appraisal in Democratic Societies - Eastwood, Terry (Archivaria, 2002)
Other Publications

Establishing Recognition of Past Injustices: Uses of Archival Records in Documenting the Experience of Japanese Canadians During the Second World War - Roberts-Moore, Judith (Archivaria, 2002)
Other Publications

Recordkeeping, reconciliation and political reality - Piggott, Michael; McKemmish, Sue (Australian Society of Archivists Annual Conference, 2002)
Other Publications
Keywords: Uncategorized

The Iraqi Secret Police Files: A Documentary Record of the Anfal Genocide - Montgomery, Bruce P. (Archivaria, 2001)
Other Publications

The Truth of Truth Commissions: Comparative Lessons from Haiti, South Africa, and Guatemala - Chapman, Audrey; Ball, Patrick (Human Rights Quarterly, 2001)
This article identifies some of the complexities and factors shaping the efforts of truth commissions. It also evaluates the kinds of truths that truth commissions can most appropriately seek to determine. While truth commissions are often portrayed as generic bodies, they have very different approaches to the kind of "truth" they are seeking. Their official mandates, the perceptions and priorities of their commissioners and key staff, the methodological orientations utilized, and the level of resources available all shape the nature of their findings and the type of report they produce. In addition, decisions made by those working within a specific truth commission, sometimes without an understanding of their implications, often have important consequences for truth-finding. The analysis draws on the experience of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) Science and Human Rights Program in providing scientific and technical assistance to three recent truth commissions-the Haitian National Commission for Truth and Justice (CNVJ), the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (TRC), and the Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) in Guatemala.
Other Publications

Human Rights: A Survey of Archival Sources in the United States and Canada - Montgomery, Bruce P. (Human Rights Quarterly, 2001)
Other Publications

Human Rights Archives and Research on Historical Memory: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay - Bickford, Louis (Latin American Research Review, 2000)
[This research note discusses an emerging subfield of inquiry in the study of democratization in Latin America: a focus on the relationships between past human rights abuses and democratization processes. It outlines four sets of questions emerging around the themes of "historical memory" and "legacies of authoritarian rule." The study then examines documentary collections of major human rights nongovernmental organizations (HRNGOs) in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. The purpose of this endeavor is to provide researchers interested in studying the four issues with specific information on documents produced and currently held by the HRNGOs in the Southern Cone. The essay examines seven HRNGOs in Chile, ten in Argentina, and four in Uruguay, and ends with practical hints for researchers who wish to use these resources.]
Other Publications

The Universal Declaration on Archives - International Council on Archives (2010)
Adopted at the General Assembly of ICA Oslo, September 2010. Endorsed by the 36th Session of the General Conference of UNESCO on 10th November 2011.

Basic principles on the role of archivists and records managers in support of human rights - International Council on Archives; Human Rights Working Group (International Council on Archives, 2016)

Application of ISAD(G) for Human Rights Archives. - Peterson, Trudy Huskamp; Human Rights working group (International Council on Archives. Conseil International des Archives., 2012)
Manuals and Guidelines

OHCHR | Call for inputs: Countering disinformation for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms - OHCHR (OHCHR, 2022)
Objectives The United Nations General Assembly resolution 76/227 on “Countering disinformation for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms” requested the UN Secretary-General “to seek the views of States, United Nations entities and relevant stakeholders and to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-seventh session a report, within existing resources, based on information and best practices shared by States, United Nations entities and relevant stakeholders on countering disinformation.”

OHCHR | International Financial Obligations, Digital Systems and Human Rights - OHCHR Special Procedures (OHCHR, 2022)
Background and objectives In her annual report to the Human Rights Council in March 2023 the Independent Expert on debt, other international financial obligations and human rights, Ms. Attiya Waris, will address the links between international financial obligations, digital systems and human rights.

OHCHR | Call for inputs for a report on cultural rights and migration - OHCHR Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights (OHCHR, 2023)
Background An estimated 280 million people, approximately 3.6% of the world’s population, currently live outside their country of origin. The reasons for these displacements are numerous: some may have chosen to leave to pursue better opportunities elsewhere; many are compelled to leave for a complex combination of reasons, including poverty, lack of access to healthcare, education, water, food, housing, and the consequences of environmental degradation and climate change; others are forced to flee persecution and conflicts.

ICC Office of the Prosecutor | Draft Policy on Cultural Heritage for consultation - ICC Office of the Prosecutor (International Criminal Court, 2021)
Today, 23 March 2021, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or the "Court''), published a draft Policy on Cultural Heritage for consultation and comments by States Parties to the Rome Statute, civil society, and the wider community of stakeholders.The development of this Policy is in line with the Office of the Prosecutor's Strategic Plan to pay particular attention to crimes against and affecting cultural heritage and the commitment of the Office to systematically investigate and prosecute such crimes. "Cultural heritage is the embodiment of the continuity of the human story, a celebration of identity, our commonality and the richness of our diversity. We all have a duty to protect cultural heritage," stated Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in contextualising this policy initiative. The draft Policy on Cultural Heritage is the manifestation of these commitments within the framework of the Rome Statute.Building on good practices and experiences of the Office in, inter alia, the Al-Mahdi case, the envisaged Policy will further guide the Office in addressing international crimes against cultural heritage within the Court's legal framework, raise greater awareness about the importance of the issue, and seek to close the impunity gap, including through positive complementarity with national jurisdictions, and maximize impact through collaboration with a wide network of partners and relevant actors. The draft Policy is based on the Rome Statute and other regulatory instruments of the Court, as well as applicable treaties, and the principles and rules of international law. It also draws on relevant international jurisprudence.The policy formulation and drafting process to date has been a consultative one. Initial round table consultations took place with a group of external experts, including experts from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO"), in 2017. The Office has enjoyed close collaboration with UNESCO, and is further consulting this specialised agency of the United Nations also in this round of consultations. The consultations carried out to date have been important to better understand the various angles from which the work of the Office can play a role in the protection of cultural heritage and have assisted the policy formulation process.The Office is of the view that external consultations on its policies and working methods are helpful to the ends of transparency and predictability. Wider external consultation is also important in ensuring that the Office ultimately adopts a policy that is comprehensive and thoroughly considered. The Office therefore welcomes and encourages comments on the draft Policy. Comments can be sent to: OTPLegalAdvisorySection@icc-cpi.int, by Friday, 16 April 2021, midnight (CET). All input received by this deadline will be carefully considered in the internal review and revision process. The Office is grateful for the interest and support of the Rome Statute community for its activities and initiatives. Draft Policy on Cultural Heritage The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC conducts independent and impartial preliminary examinations, investigations and prosecutions of the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. Since 2003, the Office has been conducting investigations in multiple situations within the ICC's jurisdiction, namely in Uganda; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Darfur, Sudan; the Central African Republic (two distinct situations); Kenya; Libya; Côte d'Ivoire; Mali; Georgia, Burundi; Bangladesh/Myanmar, Afghanistan (subject to a pending article 18 deferral request) and Palestine. The Office is also currently conducting preliminary examinations relating to the situations in Bolivia; Colombia; Guinea; the Philippines; and Venezuela (I and II); and has recently completed its preliminary examinations of the situations in Ukraine and Nigeria, which are pending requests to seek authorisation to proceed to investigation.

OHCHR | Call for inputs for a thematic study by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on “new technologies and enforced disappearances” - OHCHR Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (OHCHR, 2023)
Background At its 125th session, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (hereinafter, ‘the Working Group’) announced its intention to conduct a thematic study on the issue of new technologies and enforced disappearances.

OHCHR | Call for input: Comprehensive report on “Importance of casualty recording for the promotion and protection of human rights.” - OHCHR (OHCHR, 2023)
Background In resolution 50/11, the Human Rights Council requested the High Commissioner “to prepare, in consultation with all States, relevant United Nations entities, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions, a comprehensive report on the impact of casualty recording on the promotion and protection of human rights, including relevant practices, in particular the role of casualty recording in upholding and fulfilling the rights of victims of armed conflict, post-conflict situations

OHCHR | Call for input 53rd session of the Human Rights Council - Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance - OHCHR Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance (OHCHR, 2023)
Background Since 2012, the General Assembly has adopted annual resolutions mandating the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance to prepare two reports per year, one to the Human Rights Council and one to the General Assembly, on the implementation of General Assembly resolutions on combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

OHCHR | Call for input on The use of technology in facilitating and preventing contemporary forms of slavery - OHCHR Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and its consequences (OHCHR, 2023)
Objectives of the report The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, wishes to focus his next thematic report to the General Assembly on “the use of technology in facilitating and preventing contemporary forms of slavery”.

OHCHR | Call for comments on the draft general comment on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change - OHCHR Committee on the Rights of the Child (OHCHR, 2023)
The Committee on the Rights of the Child is currently drafting a general comment on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change.

OHCHR | Call for inputs on rights of the child and inclusive social protection - OHCHR (OHCHR, 2023)
Background Inclusive social protection is an important and timely issue affecting the respect, protection, and fulfilment of the rights of the child around the world.

ICA SAHR – The Rwanda Gacaca Archive - Peter Horsman - ICA International Council on Archives (2022)
Peter Horsman, Professor Emeriti – University of Amsterdam presents Documenting Genocide Justice: The Rwanda Gacaca Archive Peter Horseman previously worked with the Netherlands Archives School, Municipal Archives of Dordrecht, and the National Archives of the Netherlands. Currently, he is active as a consultant, mostly in the field of (electronic) records and archives management, and digital preservation (both for public and private organizations). He is currently involved in a data transformation project, providing access to the archives of the genocide courts in Rwanda, for the Netherlands Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD). Between 2002 and 2012, over 12,000 of Rwanda state-supervised community courts judged the alleged perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against an estimated 800,000 Tutsis by government forces, militia and Hutu civilians. The so called Gacaca Archive contains the files created before, during and after the reported 1,958,634 cases tried through these courts. Altogether, the Gacaca Archive comprises one of the world’s largest repositories on transitional justice. Gacaca refers to ‘a bed of soft green grass’ on which local Rwandan communities traditionally gathered to settle disputes between families or community members. This Gacaca juridical system, abandoned in the 1950s was reintroduced but replaced by the modernized, professionalized and centralized Inkiko Gacaca (Gacaca jurisdictions) in the early 2000s, specifically designed to deal with genocide related cases. The Gacaca Archive, about 6 linear kilometers of shelves, has been digitized, and is currently being indexed to make it accessible for both lawyers, general public, and scholars.

ICA SAHR – Italian Condor Trials - Giulia Barrera - ICA International Council on Archives (2021)
Giulia Barrera Operation Condor was a secret, illegal cooperation agreement among Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay in 1975 to track down and eliminate political opponents who had taken refuge abroad. After the 1973 coups in Chile and Uruguay, thousands of opponents from these countries fled to Argentina, which already hosted a wide community of Paraguayan refuges; in the following years, thousands of Argentinians took refuge abroad as well. Due to the Condor system of cooperation, once abroad political opponents still were not safe from being forcibly disappeared at the hands of intelligence operatives of their own countries: hundreds of them, in fact, were tracked down and killed. A few of them had Italian citizenship. During the past decade, Italy tried military personnel who, as part of Operation Condor were responsible for “disappearing” and killing Italian citizens, and convicted 11 Uruguayans and three Chileans. Giulia Barrera testified at this trial, using archival documents to provide evidence of the functioning of “Condor.” Join us as Dr. Barrera describes the role of archival documents in the Italian Condor trial.

ICA SAHR – South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission - Graham Dominy - ICA International Council on Archives (2021)
Graham Dominy, Former National Archivist of South Africa Intertwined Challenges: Competing Interests in the Archiving and Accessing of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission Record

Clarification Commission in Guatemala - Tomuschat, Christian (Human Rights Quarterly, 2001)
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

La Isla: Archives of a Tragedy - Stelzner, Uli (2009)
In July 2005 a huge explosion in the Guatemalan Capital leads to the discovery of the historic archive of the National Police. On the grounds of the today's Police Academy used to be located the island, the secret prison of notori...
IMDb ID: tt1590791 event-location: Germany, Guatemala
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

How Trump-Fed Conspiracy Theories About Migrant Caravan Intersect With Deadly Hatred - Peters, Jeremy W. (The New York Times, 2018)
In the final days before the election, President Trump and Republicans are trying again to highlight the caravan, which he called “an invasion of our country.”
Keywords: Anti-Semitism; Conservatism (US Politics); Illegal Immigration; Immigration and Emigration; Midterm Elections (2018); News and News Media; References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights; Republican Party; Rumors and Misinformation; Soros; George; Trump; Donald J; United States Politics and Government

Against the Odds: CICIG in Guatemala - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Refworld, 2016)
Refworld is the leading source of information necessary for taking quality decisions on refugee status. Refworld contains a vast collection of reports relating to situations in countries of origin, policy documents and positions, and documents relating to international and national legal frameworks. The information has been carefully selected and compiled from UNHCR's global network of field offices, Governments, international, regional and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and judicial bodies.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Analysis | Why some Latin American countries are rushing to open Jerusalem embassies, too - Noack, Rick (Washington Post, 2021)
It's mostly about currying favor with the United States, not Israel.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Trump’s agreements in Central America are dismantling the asylum system as we know it - Narea, Nicole (Vox, 2019)
The administration has started sending migrants back to Guatemala.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Guatemala Declares War on History - Lynch, Colum (Foreign Policy, 2019)
Looking for help on immigration, the Trump administration is silent in the face of Guatemala’s effort to seal its dirty war archive.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

The Secrets in Guatemala’s Bones - Jones, Maggie (The New York Times, 2016)
In the face of death threats, a forensic anthropologist has spent two decades exhuming the victims of a “dirty” civil war. Now his work might help bring justice for their murders.
Keywords: Archaeology and Anthropology; Forensic Science; Guatemala; Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation; Human Rights and Human Rights Violations; Jones; Maggie; Peccerelli; Fredy (1971- ); References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights; Rios Montt; Efrain; War Crimes; Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

On or off the record? Detecting patterns of silence about death in Guatemala’s National Police Archive - Guberek, Tamy; Hedstrom, Margaret (Archival Science, 2017)
This paper investigates how the production of police records was linked to the policies of repression and violence during Guatemala’s civil war. We provide empirical evidence from the Historical Archive of the Guatemalan National Police that the police used language, terminology and codes to record deaths in ways that produced silences about the level of violence during the height of repressive military rule. Using a dataset derived from a statistically valid sample of police records together with qualitative archival analysis, we find evidence of profound changes in the terminology used to record and report on deaths—changes that follow a pattern consistent with the policies of information control and concealment of the three different military regimes that ruled Guatemala between 1978 and 1985. We argue that researchers will need to consider the silences created through the selective use of terminology in documents when using archives to produce historical knowledge. Detecting and intercepting silence will be especially important as state records are increasingly sought in service of ongoing pursuits for truth and justice about past atrocities.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

The Art Of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop? - Goldman, Francisco (Grove Press, 2008)
Bishop Juan Gerardi, Guatemala’s leading human rights activist, was bludgeoned to death in his garage on a Sunday night in 1998, two days after the presentation of a groundbreaking church-sponsored report implicating the military in the murders and disappearances of some two hundred thousand civilians. Realizing that it could not rely on police investigators or the legal system to solve the murder, the church formed its own investigative team, a group of secular young men in their twenties who called themselves Los Intocables (the Untouchables). Known in Guatemala as “The Crime of the Century,” the Bishop Gerardi murder case, with its unexpectedly outlandish scenarios and sensational developments, confounded observers and generated extraordinary controversy. In his first nonfiction book, acclaimed novelist Francisco Goldman has spoken to witnesses no other reporter has reached, and observed firsthand some of the most crucial developments in the case. Now he has produced The Art of Political Murder, a tense and astonishing true detective story that opens a window on the new Latin American reality of mara youth gangs and organized crime, and tells the story of a remarkable group of engaging, courageous young people, and of their remarkable fight for justice.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Why Guatemala’s Anti-Corruption Commission Faces a New Wave of Efforts to Derail It - Doyle, Kate; Oglesby, Elizabeth (World Politics Review, 2018)
A new attorney general took office in Guatemala last week amid sharp tensions over the role of a United Nations-backed anti-corruption commission that has helped bring high-profile charges against some of the country’s most powerful politicians. Maria Consuelo Porras, a former substitute judge for Guatemala’s Constitutional Court, will run the country’s Public Ministry and direct its criminal, human rights and anti-corruption investigations. The outgoing attorney general, Thelma Aldana, and her predecessor, Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey, showed impressive leadership and independence in investigating and prosecuting these sorts of cases. Now their enemies want those advances reversed. Across Central America, public [...]
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Guatemala Police Archive under Threat - National Security Archive (National Security Archive, 2018)
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Deciphering the archives of Guatemala's dirty war - Doyle, Kate (Harper’s Magazine, 2007)
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Four Retired Senior Military Officers Found Guilty in Molina Theissen Case - Burt, Jo-Marie; Paulo, Estrada (International Justice Monitor, 2018)
Four retired senior members of the Guatemalan military—including two high-ranking officers previously thought to be untouchable, former Army Chief of Staff Benedicto Lucas García and former chief of military intelligence Manuel Callejas y Callejas—were convicted today in Guatemala of involvement in
Section: Guatemala Trials
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development - Human Rights Council (United Nations, 2012)
This is the first annual report submitted to the Human Rights Council by the first Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of nonrecurrence, Pablo de Greiff.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

From the Ashes of History Loss and Recovery of Archives and Libraries in Modern Latin America - Aguirre, Carlos; Villa-Flores, Javier (The University of North Carolina Press, 2015)
The formation, organization, and accessibility of archives and libraries are critical for the production of historical narratives. They contain the materials...
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Brazil Truth Commission Releases Report - The National Security Archive (The National Security Archive, 2014)
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Counting the Dead: The Culture and Politics of Human Rights Activism in Colombia - Tate, Winifred (University of California Press, 2007)
At a time when a global consensus on human rights standards seems to be emerging, this rich study steps back to explore how the idea of human rights is actually employed by activists and human rights professionals. Winifred Tate, an anthropologist and activist with extensive experience in Colombia, finds that radically different ideas about human rights have shaped three groups of human rights professionals working there–nongovernmental activists, state representatives, and military officers. Drawing from the life stories of high-profile activists, pioneering interviews with military officials, and research at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Counting the Dead underscores the importance of analyzing and understanding human rights discourses, methodologies, and institutions within the context of broader cultural and political debates.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

My Life as a Spy: Investigations in a Secret Police File - Verdery, Katherine (Duke Univ Pr, 2018)
As Katherine Verdery observes, "There's nothing like reading your secret police file to make you wonder who you really are." In 1973 Verdery began her doctoral fieldwork in the Transylvanian region of Romania, ruled at the time by communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. She returned several times over the next twenty-five years, during which time the secret police–the Securitate–compiled a massive surveillance file on her. Reading through its 2,781 pages, she learned that she was "actually" a spy, a CIA agent, a Hungarian agitator, and a friend of dissidents: in short, an enemy of Romania. In My Life as a Spy she analyzes her file alongside her original field notes and conversations with Securitate officers. Verdery also talks with some of the informers who were close friends, learning the complex circumstances that led them to report on her, and considers how fieldwork and spying can be easily confused. Part memoir, part detective story, part anthropological analysis, My Life as a Spy offers a personal account of how government surveillance worked during the Cold War and how Verdery experienced living under it.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Observers Observed: An Anthropologist under Surveillance - Verdery, Katherine (Anthropology Now, 2012)
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

The Tismaneanu Report: Romania Revisits Its Past - Tanasoiu, Cosmina (Problems of Post-Communism, 2007)
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Truth Commissions in Post-Communism: The Overlooked Solution? - Stan, Lavinia (The Open Political Science Journal, 2009)
Despite their increased popularity in Latin America, Africa and Asia, truth commissions have remained an overlooked solution to coming to terms with the recent human rights abuses perpetrated in communist Europe. Since the start of the democratization process in the early 1990s, only Germany, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and Romania have employed truth commissions as methods to reckon with communist crimes. These five commissions share important similarities and differences in terms of their organizational structure, goals, activity, and efficacy. The scarcity of truth commissions in post-communist Europe is explained by the nature of communist repression, the legitimacy of the communist regime as a home-grown versus an externally-imposed political set of institutions and practices, and the use of lustration and access to secret files as methods to obtain truth, justice and reconciliation in posttotalitarian times.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Transitional Justice in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union: Reckoning with the communist past - Stan, Lavinia (Routledge, 2010)
During the last two decades, the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have attempted to address the numerous human rights abuses that characterized the decades of communist rule. This book examines the main processes of transitional justice that permitted societies in those countries to come to terms with their recent past. It explores lustration, the banning of communist officials and secret political police officers and informers from post-communist politic, ordinary citizens’ access to the remaining archives compiled on them by the communist secret police, as well as trials and court proceedings launched against former communist officials and secret agents for their human rights trespasses. Individual chapters explore the progress of transitional justice in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Slovenia and the successor states of the former Soviet Union. The chapters explain why different countries have employed different models to come to terms with their communist past; assess each country’s relative successes and failures; and probe the efficacy of country-specific legislation to attain the transitional justice goals for which it was developed. The book draws together the country cases into a comprehensive comparative analysis of the determinants of post-communist transitional justice, that will be relevant not only to scholars of post-communist transition, but also to anyone interested in transitional justice in other contexts.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Justice and Reconciliation: After the Violence - Rigby, Andrew (Lynne Rienner Pub, 2001)
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Recuperative memory in Romanian post-Communist society - Mitroiu, Simona (Nationalities Papers, 2016)
This paper explores the idea of “recuperative memory” with respect to the process of coming to terms with the past after the fall of the Romanian Communist regime in 1989. Its method is to examine the mechanisms used by recuperative memory in order to re-appropriate the past and emphasize the inherently mediated and multifaceted nature of this process. Using various examples from oral testimonies, autobiographical writings, literary works, and cinema, the paper argues that the role of recuperative memory is not only to facilitate the process of coming to terms with the past, but also to offer the material necessary to sustain a viable politics of memory. This entails providing a platform for the intergenerational transmission of memory and knowledge for those who did not live under the Communist regime, filling in this way the intergenerational gap, despite the lack of political class engagement.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

The Ethics of Memory - Margalit, Avishai (Harvard University Press, 2004)
Much of the intense current interest in collective memory concerns the politics of memory. In a book that asks, "Is there an ethics of memory?" Avishai Margalit addresses a separate, perhaps more pressing, set of concerns. The idea he pursues is that the past, connecting people to each other, makes possible the kinds of "thick" relations we can call truly ethical. Thick relations, he argues, are those that we have with family and friends, lovers and neighbors, our tribe and our nation–and they are all dependent on shared memories. But we also have "thin" relations with total strangers, people with whom we have nothing in common except our common humanity. A central idea of the ethics of memory is that when radical evil attacks our shared humanity, we ought as human beings to remember the victims. Margalit's work offers a philosophy for our time, when, in the wake of overwhelming atrocities, memory can seem more crippling than liberating, a force more for revenge than for reconciliation. Morally powerful, deeply learned, and elegantly written, The Ethics of Memory draws on the resources of millennia of Western philosophy and religion to provide us with healing ideas that will engage all of us who care about the nature of our relations to others.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Romania: Bottom of the Heap - Judt, Tony (The New York Review, 2001)
The February 2000 issue of the Bucharest men's magazine Plai cu Boi features one Princess Brianna Caradja. Variously clad in leather or nothing much at
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Shattered Past: Reconstructing German Histories - Jarausch, Konrad H.; Geyer, Michael (Princeton University Press, 2003)
Broken glass, twisted beams, piles of debris–these are the early memories of the children who grew up amidst the ruins of the Third Reich. More than five decades later, German youth inhabit manicured suburbs and stroll along prosperous pedestrian malls. Shattered Past is a bold reconsideration of the perplexing pattern of Germany's twentieth-century history. Konrad Jarausch and Michael Geyer explore the staggering gap between the country's role in the terrors of war and its subsequent success as a democracy. They argue that the collapse of Communism, national reunification, and the postmodern shift call for a new reading of the country's turbulent development, one that no longer suggests continuity but rupture and conflict. Comprising original essays, the book begins by reexamining the nationalist, socialist, and liberal master narratives that have dominated the presentation of German history but are now losing their hold. Treated next are major issues of recent debate that suggest how new kinds of German history might be written: annihilationist warfare, complicity with dictatorship, the taming of power, the impact of migration, the struggle over national identity, redefinitions of womanhood, and the development of consumption as well as popular culture. The concluding chapters reflect on the country's gradual transition from chaos to civility. This penetrating study will spark a fresh debate about the meaning of the German past during the last century. There is no single master narrative, no Weltgeist, to be discovered. But there is a fascinating story to be told in many different ways.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

The Communist Regime in Romania: Interpretation or Condemnation? - Iacob, Bogdan C. (Sudosteuropa Mitteilungen, 2014)
The article analyses the second life of the concept of genocide In public, scholarly and legal post-2006 discourses about how to deal with the communist past In Romania. It counterpoises such problematic radical condemnations with recent developments In local historical studies. The contribution focuses on a new generation of historians (In their thirties and early forties), exemplifying these approaches by discussing novel studies about repression, Institutions and biographies. It argues that the employment of the term genocide on the one hand reflects specific traditions of public, scholarly and legal narratives about the communist regime. On the other hand, It highlights the ambiguity and misrepresentation of historical phenomena concerning the period from 1945 to 1989 in Romania. Such overbearing denunciatory attitudes potentially obfuscate the complexities and varieties of the past. Benefiting from a genuine archival revolution after 2007, young historians counterbalance opaque, uncritical narratives of victimization with a renewed will for Interpretation and revision. Adapted from the source document.
Num Pages: 18
Keywords: Attitudes; Communists; Genocide; Historians; Narratives; Radicalism; References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights; Repression (Political); Revolutions; Romania

Late lustration programmes in Romania and Poland: supporting or undermining democratic transitions? - Horne, Cynthia M. (Democratization, 2009)
In 2006, Poland and Romania embarked on renewed lustration programmes. These late lustration policies expanded the scope and transparency measures associated with lustration as a form of transitional justice. While early lustration measures targeted political elites, late lustration policies include public and private sector positions, such as journalists, academics, business leaders, and others in ‘positions of public trust’. Given the legal controversy and moral complexity surrounding lustration, why lustrate so late in the post-communist transition and why expand the policies? The dominant explanation is that lustration is a tool of party politics and is a threat to democratic consolidation. However, the late lustration programmes do not fit this hypothesis neatly. The new laws have been restructured and packaged with other reform programmes, specifically anticorruption programmes. Late lustration has evolved to include economic and social, as well as political concerns. As such, some post-communist governments in Central and Eastern Europe appear to be trying to use lustration as a way to further the democratic transitions by addressing remaining public concerns about corruption, distrust, and inequality.
_eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/13510340902732581
Keywords: Poland; References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights; Romania; anticorruption; elites; lustration; transition; transitional justice

Political Forgiveness - Digeser, Peter (Cornell University Press, 2001)
What does forgiveness mean when it appears in politics, and what is its relationship to other ideas in political philosophy? In Political Forgiveness, P. E. Digeser defends a conception of forgiveness against those who are skeptical of its desirability as a political idea. While much of the previous work on forgiveness reflects theological or psychological perspectives, Digeser offers a concept of political forgiveness that is secular and public rather than religious or personal. It centers on the capacity of victims and creditors to release transgressors and debtors from their moral and financial debts. "If justice is a matter of receiving one's due", he says, "then political forgiveness entails releasing one's due". Nevertheless, political forgiveness remains connected to justice in important ways.Exploring the limits and possibilities of political forgiveness, Digeser considers not only its relationship to justice, but also such issues as who has authority to forgive, the connection between forgiveness and reconciliation, the meaning and scope of group responsibility, the idea of pardoning as a form of political forgiveness, and whether there is an obligation to forgive.
Google-Books-ID: lSfsKx5ZayoC
Keywords: Political Science / General; Political Science / History & Theory; References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Essays in Understanding, 1930-1954: Formation, Exile, and Totalitarianism - Arendt, Hannah (Schocken, 2005)
Few thinkers have addressed the political horrors and ethical complexities of the twentieth century with the insight and passionate intellectual integrity of Hannah Arendt. She was irresistible drawn to the activity of understanding, in an effort to endow historic, political, and cultural events with meaning. Essays in Understanding assembles many of Arendt’s writings from the 1930s, 1940s, and into the 1950s. Included here are illuminating discussions of St. Augustine, existentialism, Kafka, and Kierkegaard: relatively early examinations of Nazism, responsibility and guilt, and the place of religion in the modern world: and her later investigations into the nature of totalitarianism that Arendt set down after The Origins of Totalitarianism was published in 1951. The body of work gathered in this volume gives us a remarkable portrait of Arendt’s developments as a thinker—and confirms why her ideas and judgments remain as provocative and seminal today as they were when she first set them down.
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights

Handbuch Transitional Justice: Aufarbeitung von Unrecht - hin zur Rechtsstaatlichkeit und Demokratie - Mihr, Anja; Pickel, Gert; Pickel, Susanne (Springer Fachmedien, 2018)
Dieses Handbuch ist eine systematische und methodische Einführung in das Thema Transitional Justice, das bislang vor allem durch Länderstudien zur
Keywords: References - Boel et al. (2021); Archives and Human Rights