HURIDOCS presents the Micro-Thesauri for Documenting Human Rights Violations

The Micro-thesauri: a tool for documenting human rights violations is a collection of 48 lists with terminology was developed by HURIDOCS or adapted from a variety of authoritative resources. The Micro-thesauri are intended for use in conjunction with HURIDOCS Standard Formats manuals.

The standard is available in English, French, Spanish, and Russian versions.

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Haitus November 17-December 18

Readers,

Posts to this blog will be scarce over the next four weeks.  I will be traveling and will not have access to a network for the most of this period.  Please feel free to continue reading past posts and commenting.

Thanks,

Aileen Rose Cornelio

Final Acts: A Guide To Preserving the Records of Truth Commissions

Authored by archivist and Chair of the ICA’s Human Rights Working Group, Trudy Peterson, and in partnership with The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, this publication provides guidance to current and future commissions on managing their records once the work of a commission draws to a close.  Because truth commissions vary from country to country, this publication does not claim to provide answers. Peterson states that “those emerge from the individual context in which the commission operates”.

At the end of the last century, the “truth commission” emerged as a means of addressing the tumultuous violence that occurred in a country.  There are many examples from Central and South America.  A large mass of records and information flow through commissions in a short amount of time, usually to produce a report.  It is most often the case that records of truth commissions (those created previously by other institutions, as well as those contemporaneously produced and used by a commission) are difficult, if not impossible, to trace.  In keeping with the premise behind a truth commission, the records of such should eventually be made publicly accessible to ensure the transparency of the actions and decisions of the commission.

Peterson stresses that this publication is not a list of comprehensive guidelines in managing the records while still in active use.  Drawing from past and present examples, Peterson produces essential reading for assistance and insight into the proper disposition of the records of such commissions after they close.

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The Urge to Remember: The Roles of Memorials in Social Reconstruction & Transitional Justice

This report is based on the deliberations of the United States Institute of Peace Working Group that focused on the role of memorialization in promoting, jeopardizing, or impairing social reconstruction or reconciliation emerging from violent conflict.  Judy Barsalou and Victoria Baxter discuss the effect of memorials on victims and national identity by providing examples of efforts around the world.  Museum and libraries are prevalent examples as centers for memory and memorialization.  Also, brief mention of international criminal tribunals’ retention/disposition practices reveal the need to take more of a victim-based approach in handling records of a judicial nature.

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Justice Served in Guatemala: Testimonies from The National Security Archive & Benetech’s Human Rights Data Analysis Group

On October 28, 2010, two former Guatemalan police officers accused of the 1984 abduction and forced disappearance of Labour Party activist, Edgar Fernando Garcia, were sentenced to 40 years in prison.  The indictments and sentencing were long overdue.  Last week Kate Doyle, a Senior Analyst at The National Security Archive (NSA), and Daniel Guzman, a statistician with Benetech, testified as expert witnesses for the prosecution in the trial of ex-police officers, Hector Roderico Rios and Abrahan Lancerio.

I was introduced to the Guatemalan National Police Archives and the contributions made therein by Kate Doyle, by way of award-winning documentary filmmaker Pamela Yates (Pamela was generous with her time in explaining to me her own projects which shed light on the atrocities in Guatemala).  Doyle’s earlier assessment of the Death Squad Dossier a military logbook documenting the disappearances of Guatemalans during the civil war violence of the mid 1980s, provided the watershed moment that allowed families of victims to pursue collective legal action.  Doyle has been a committed advocate of truth commissions in Latin America for nearly two decades.  Her work with the NSA, a long-standing partner of the Guatemala Human Rights Office, has brought justice by advocating openness in society and transparency in government.  Doyle currently serves as advisor to the archivists of the Archives of the National Police in Guatemala.

Last week’s successful trial highlights some points on the importance of records for use as legal evidence.  In an interview with The WITNESS Blog, Doyle portrays this case as representative of a serious violation of one’s right to information.  Edgar Fernando Garcia’s wife, Nineth Montenego de Garcia, was for years denied access to information as to her husband’s disappearance.  A vigorous proponent of Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, Doyle condemns this silence of the state and continues to stress the use of archival records as evidence of human rights violations to seek justice.  Needless to say, the availability of the records from the archive undoubtedly opened the Garcia case.  According to a post on the NSA blog, Unredacted, Doyle writes that the “indictments…were the first to be based on evidence found by the investigators among records inside the Historical Archive of the National Police.”

Another impressive feature of the proceedings was the testimony of statitician Daniel Guzman.  Guzman is a consultant with the Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG).  HRDAG performed a, sort of, records forensics analysis on a sampling of the records to produce a statistical analysis of the data in the records, which was then presented in court.  The prosecution used the analyzed data to make it abundantly evident that Garcia’s disappearance was part of a systematic pattern of the state to eliminate opponents during the 1983-86 regime of General Oscar Mejia.

HRDAG is a project offshoot of Benetech and it’s work exemplifies one of the novel ways archival records may be used in similar legal cases.  Benetech’s purpose to apply technology in effecting change is strategic.  They target three thematic areas in their work: Environment, Literacy, and Human Rights.  The defend human rights by using information management to analyze records and provide technical assistance to other organizations, commissions,  and groups to resolve conflicts and improve lives.  HRDAG is a unique and promising amalgam of information management, statistics, and technology for the human rights movement.  Their success in Guatemala, which made the arrests of the ex-police officers possible, may prove to have similar applications in places like the Congo where civil war fuels human rights abuses.

Read Kate Doyle’s post Unredacted

Read WITNESS’ interview with Kate Dolye on activism in archives

Read FRONTLINE/World’s article on Benetech