Archives and Human Rights
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Archives and Human Rights Why and how can records serve as evidence of human rights violations, in particular crimes against humanity, and help the fight against impunity? Archives and Human Rights shows the close relationship between archives and human rights and discusses the emergence, at the international level, of the principles of the right to truth, justice and reparation. Through a historical overview and topical case studies from different regions of the world, the book discusses how records can concretely support these principles. The current examples also demonstrate how the perception of the role of the archivist has undergone a metamorphosis in recent decades, towards the idea that archivists can and must play an active role in defending basic human rights, first and foremost by enabling access to documentation on human rights violations. Confronting painful memories of the past is a way to make the ghosts disappear and begin building a brighter, more serene future. The establishment of international justice mechanisms and the creation of truth commissions are important elements of this process. The healing begins with the acknowledgement that painful chapters are essential parts of history; archives then play a crucial role by providing evidence. This book is both a tool and an inspiration to use archives in defence of human rights. Jens Boel is a Danish archivist and historian. He was the Chief Archivist of UNESCO from 1995 to 2017 and Chair of the International Council on Archives’ Section of International Organizations 2000–2004 and 2008–2012. He launched the UNESCO History Project in 2004 and is co-editor of Recordkeeping in International Organizations, Routledge, 2020. Perrine Canavaggio, a French archivist, was Head of the Archives of the Presidency of the Republic (1974–1994). Secretary of the International Conference of the Round Table on Archives (2001–2009), she is a member of the Executive Committee of the ICA Section on Archives and Human Rights. Antonio González Quintana is a Spanish archivist. He is Chair of the ICA Section on Archives and Human Rights and has been Deputy General Director of Archives in the Community of Madrid (2010–2018). He is the author of Archival Policies in the Protection of Human Rights (2009). Routledge Approaches to History 38 Africa, Empire and World Disorder Selected Essays A.G. Hopkins 39 History in a Post-Truth World Theory and Praxis Edited by Marius Gudonis and Benjamin T. Jones 40 The Primacy of Method in Historical Research Philosophy of History and the Perspective of Meaning Jonas Ahlskog 41 Archives and Human Rights Edited by Jens Boel, Perrine Canavaggio and Antonio González Quintana 42 Historical Experience Essays on the Phenomenology of History David Carr 43 Humanism: Foundations, Diversities, Developments Jörn Rüsen 44 National History and New Nationalism in the Twenty-First Century A Global Comparison Edited by Niels F. May and Thomas Maissen 45 Family History and Historians in Australia and New Zealand Related Histories Edited by Malcolm Allbrook and Sophie Scott-Brown For a full list of available titles please visit: https://www.routledge.com/ Routledge-Approaches-to-History/book-series/RSHISTHRY Archives and Human Rights Edited by Jens Boel, Perrine Canavaggio and Antonio González Quintana First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Jens Boel, Perrine Canavaggio and Antonio González Quintana; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Jens Boel, Perrine Canavaggio and Antonio González Quintana to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-367-15034-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-72460-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-05462-4 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC To the memory of Louis Joinet Contents Acknowledgements x List of authors xi Foreword xviii MICHELLE BACHELET Message from the President of the International Council on Archives xx DAVID FRICKER Introduction 1 JENS BOEL, PERRINE CANAVAGGIO AND ANTONIO GONZÁLEZ QUINTANA PART 1 Archives and human rights: a close relationship 9 JENS BOEL, PERRINE CANAVAGGIO AND ANTONIO GONZÁLEZ QUINTANA 1 Archives and citizens’ rights 11 2 Records and archives documenting gross human rights violations 21 3 Archives and transitional justice 41 4 Archives and the duty to remember 54 5 Archivists for human rights 57 6 Archives and human rights beyond political transitions 63 viii Contents PART 2 Case studies 81 1 Proof 83 TRUDY HUSKAMP PETERSON Africa 113 2 A long walk to justice: archives and the truth and reconciliation process in South Africa 115 GRAHAM DOMINY 3 Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission: archives in the pursuit of truth 126 ADEL MAÏZI 4 The exploitation of the archives of Hissène Habré’s political police by the Extraordinary African Chambers 138 HENRI THULLIEZ 5 The Gacaca archive: preserving the memory of post-genocide justice and reconciliation in Rwanda 152 PETER HORSMAN Asia 165 6 Memory politics and archives in Sino-Japanese relations 167 KARL GUSTAFSSON 7 The use of the archives of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Documentation Centre of Cambodia by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia 178 VINCENT DE WILDE D’ESTMAEL Europe 189 8 Spanish military documentation on the Civil War and the dictatorship as an instrument of legal reparations for the victims of the Franco regime 191 HENAR ALONSO RODRÍGUEZ 9 The “Centres of Remembrance” in post-communist Europe 204 JOSÉ M. FARALDO Contents ix 10 A legacy of the DDR: the Stasi Records Archive 218 DAGMAR HOVESTÄDT 11 France and the archives of the Algerian War 230 GILLES MANCERON AND GILLES MORIN 12 Truth, memory, and reconciliation in post-communist societies: the Romanian experience and the Securitate archives 247 MARIUS STAN AND VLADIMIR TISMANEANU Latin America 261 13 Archives for memory and justice in Colombia after the Peace Agreements 263 RAMON ALBERCH I FUGUERAS 14 Utilisation of the archives of the Peruvian Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (CVR) 277 RUTH ELENA BORJA SANTA CRUZ 15 Archives, truth and the democratic transition process in Brazil 288 ALUF ALBA VILAR ELIAS 16 Archives for truth and justice in Argentina: the search for the missing persons 296 MARIANA NAZAR 17 Chronicle of a backlash foretold: Guatemala’s National Police archives, lost and found and lost – and found? – again 309 KIRSTEN WELD Concluding remarks 320 JENS BOEL, PERRINE CANAVAGGIO AND ANTONIO GONZÁLEZ QUINTANA Index 323 Acknowledgements The editors thank all colleagues who have contributed to this book with inspiration and work. In particular, we wish to thank David Sutton for his tireless and precious linguistic support. Those parts of the book which we have submitted for his critical review of language and style, have greatly benefited from his insightful suggestions. We also wish to thank Jean Canav- aggio for his generous and invaluable help in translating some of the key texts of the book. Margaret Procter kindly volunteered to translate one of the case studies. Christine Cross, Lauren Elston and Fiona Westbury have translated most of the texts originally written in French, Portuguese and Spanish; we appreciate their professionalism and competent work. Finally, we want to thank our families for their patience and support during the whole editorial process. List of authors Ramon Alberch i Fugueras has a PhD in history. He is President of Archivist without Borders International since 2012. He is also member of the Inter- national Advisory Council of the National Center of Historical Memory of Colombia (2015–2018) and has served as an international consultant for the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (2019). In the 2006–2014 period, he directed the project of recovery and access to documents and archives of repressive regimes in Latin America. He has been Coordinator of the diploma “Archives and human rights. International learning in contexts of (post) conflict” (2015–2016). He is the author of 30 essays and manu- als of archives and history, and has been a speaker at numerous interna- tional conferences on the subject of archives and human rights. Henar Alonso Rodríguez is a member of Spain’s Corps of Archivists and is a senior expert on Archives, working as Head of the Description Area of the General Military Archive of Avila, one of the Spanish Army’s four History Archives, within the Ministry of Defence’s Archive Sys- tem. A graduate in law and postgraduate in European Public Law, she is a member of the Spanish Civil Service Archivists’ Association, (AEFP: Archiveros Españoles en la Función Pública) and the Castile and Leon Archivists’ Association (ACAL: Asociación de Archiveros de Castilla y León), with which she regularly collaborates over training in the fields of Document Management, Archival Science and Transparency, as well as technical and general interest publications and publicity campaigns on social networks. Jens Boel is a Danish archivist and historian. He was the Chief Archivist of UNESCO from 1995 to 2017 and Coordinator of the UNESCO History Project from 2004 to 2011.