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Essential Archives for a Peaceful Future

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Essential Archives for a Peaceful Future Archives for a Essential Peaceful Future 01/2013 Sandra Rubli Briony Jones Imprint Table of content Publisher Archives for a Peaceful Future swisspeace is an action-oriented peace research institute A Guidance Note for Working with the with headquarters in Bern, Switzerland. It aims to prevent Archives of Truth Commissions in Dealing the outbreak of violent conflicts and to enable sustainable with the Past Contexts conflict transformation. swisspeace is an Associated Institute of the University of 1 Introduction 5 Basel and a member of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW). 2 Records management and long-term preservation of truth commissions’ archives 8 The Dealing with the Past Program The Dealing with the Past Program of swisspeace 3 Access to archives of a truth commission 14 supports governmental and non-governmental actors in 4 Further use of truth commissions’ archives 18 the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of DwP activities. The program provides a wide range of 5 Ways forward 25 training opportunities including introductory courses and Annex: Methods and results of the research courses on more specific aspects of Dealing with the Past and contributes to the research-policy nexus at project 27 swisspeace through its research projects, research About the Authors 31 events, conferences, publications and teaching. About swisspeace 32 Essential series With its Essential series, swisspeace offers expert advice and guidance for practioners on various topics of civilian peacebuilding. A full publication list can be found at the end of this paper or on www.swisspeace.org. Cover picture Archives of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Sierra Leone. Copyright: Andreas Nef swisspeace Sonnenbergstrasse 17 PO Box, 3000 Bern 7 www.swisspeace.org [email protected] © 2013 swisspeace 1 Introduction1 Introduction “A Truth Commission cannot implement the truth commission’s recommendations and 4 See Dealing with the Past, 2012, for subsequent transitional justice mechanisms such as op. cit.; Secretary General (2010) United Nations Approach overcome a society’s divisions. prosecutions, reparation programs, vetting efforts and to Transitional Justice Guidance memorialization initiatives. In this sense, when the truth Note of the Secretary-General; commission finishes its work, its legacy and contribution and Secretary General (2004) It can only winnow out the The Rule of Law and Transitional 4 to dealing with the past is only just beginning. While truth Justice in Conflict and Post- commissions are an instrument for establishing the right Conflict Societies UN Secretary- solid core of facts upon which General Report, S/2004/616. to truth, archives relating to human rights violations are 5 Joinet, Louis (1997) Revised Final society’s arguments with itself also vital for the right to know and thus are “drawing upon Report. Question of the Impunity history to prevent violations from recurring in the of Perpetrators of Human Rights Violations (Civil and Political). 2 5 should be conducted”. future”. Preserving the materials testifying to human E/CN.4/Sub.2/1997/20. E/ rights violations make perversion, amnesia, revision CN.4/Sub.2/1997/20/Rev.1. See or negation of history, violence and oppression more also Orentlicher, Diane (2005) Truth commissions are an important mechanism for Report of the Independent difficult. In addition, the preservation and accessibility any society dealing with past serious human rights Expert to update the Set of of the whole archive ensures that not only that which is Principles to Combat Impunity, violations which have occurred during a civil war, an mentioned in the final report will be remembered, but E/CN.4/2005/102; Office of the authoritarian regime or invasion and occupation. As a High Commissioner for Human also allows victims, future generations, researchers Rights (2006) Rule-of-Law Tools temporary, officially sanctioned truth-seeking body, or persons contesting the report to make their own for Post-Conflict States: Truth truth commissions investigate and document past human Commissions, Doc HR/PUB/06/1; interpretations and conclusions.6 Decisions about the rights violations and establish an official narrative about Office of the High Commissioner appraisal, management and accessibility of a truth for Human Rights (2011) Report what happened. At the end of their mandates they are commission’s archive are thus part of the broader set of of the Office of the United left with a huge amount of collected and created records Nations High Commissioner for choices which a society in transition must make about which provided the basis for, and document the work of, Human Rights on the seminar how to reckon with its past. on experiences of archives as a the truth commission and thus form part of its legacy. means to guarantee the right to the truth, A/HRC/17/21; Bickford, This guidance note is one output from the research The authors of this note take an holistic approach Louis, Patricia Karam, Hassan project Archives and Records of Truth Commissions and Mneimneh and Patrick Pierce to dealing with the past3 in which the archives of a truth builds on an original study by Trudy Huskamp Peterson (2009) Documenting Truth. New 1 We thank Elisabeth commission can be seen as an integral part of a broader York: International Center for in which she detailed the current status of the archives Transitional Justice Baumgartner, Tobias Affolter, and long term process which does not simply terminate Trudy Huskamp Peterson, Patrick of truth commissions, Final Acts: A Guide to Preserving 6 Peterson, Trudy Huskamp with a truth commission’s final report nor involve only (2005) Final Acts: A Guide to Walsh and all other workshop Records of Truth Commissions (2005).7 Drawing on a participants of 17th May 2013 one transitional justice mechanism. Therefore all of the the Preserving Records of Truth methodology of desk based research, questionnaires Commissions. John Hopkins for sharing their insights and records contained within a truth commission’s archive providing valuable feedback and and interviews detailed in the annex, this note provides University Press, p. 2. are a crucial part of a country’s historical memory and 7 Peterson 2005, op. cit. comments on an earlier draft of guidance regarding archival issues to two main this guidance note. national heritage. By showing how the truth commission 2 Ignatieff, Michael (1996) Articles audiences. Firstly, to dealing with the past practitioners worked and handled its documentation, their archives of Faith. Index on Censorship, 25, and experts who are involved in the establishment, p. 113. support its legitimacy and the acceptance of its findings. funding, design and work of a truth commission as well 3 See Dealing with the Past (2012) In doing so, they constitute an example for society at a A Conceptual Framework for as in the dissemination of its findings and the future time of transition towards democracy, accountability Dealing with the Past. Holism in use of its archives. Secondly, this note is addressed to Principle and Practice. Dealing and the rule of law. A truth commission’s archives are archivists who work with truth commissions. As such, it with the Past Background Paper, also an important source of information for work to swisspeace. provides specific considerations and reflections for truth 5 6 Introduction 2 Records management and long-term preservation of truth commissions’ archives commissions’ archives which may differ from ‘normal’ From the beginning of their mandate, truth commissions archives due to the sensitive nature of some records and create and receive a large amount of material. The the post-conflict or fragile transitional context in which created records will relate to their administrative life they operate. as well as to their substantive truth-seeking and truth- telling work. They may include written and oral forms While this guidance note does not provide guidance of testimonies from victims, those who are accused on archival techniques, it presents factors which need of being perpetrators, minutes of public hearings and to be considered when managing and preserving the meeting notes, as well as reports and recommendations. records of a truth commission in the long term. Moreover, In addition, the published final reports which present the guidance note will provide reflections on issues of a condensed version of these materials, conclusions access, outreach and further use to ensure the best and recommendations, and often consist of several chance for truth commissions’ archives to contribute hundred pages, belong to the records created by a truth to the non-recurrence of human rights violations, commission. Moreover, truth commissions receive and reconciliation and dealing with the past. While archival collect records from individuals, non-governmental standards and guidelines aim to provide model practices institutions and state bodies. they often need to be adapted, since the mandate and work of truth commissions can differ and in each All these records can be of various types, including political context there are different choices to be made. paper and electronic documents, audio and video However, this guidance note presents some general recordings, photographs, maps, artefacts or even considerations, key principles, options and questions artistic objects. Since truth commissions investigate for those setting up or working with a truth finding serious human rights violations, the records contain
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