Defining human rights archives: introduction to the special double issue on archives and human rights

Abstract

Defining human rights archives: Introduction to the special double issue on archives and human rights Is it possible the antonym of forgetting is not remembering but justice? --Yosef Yerushalmi (2005, p. 117) The majority of the papers in this special double issue on archives and human rights were originally presented at the symposium ‘The Antonym of Forgetting: Global Perspectives on Human Rights Archives,’ which was held October 18 and 19, 2013 at the University of California, Los Angeles. 1 The symposium explored the complex political, ethical, legal, and cultural challenges faced in the creation, preservation, and use of records documenting human rights crises. In bringing together an international group of archivists and scholars whose work addresses archival issues in a broad range of countries—South Africa, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Bosnia, Croatia, Rwanda, and the United States—the symposium provided an opportunity to develop interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of archival theory and practice, human rights, history, anthropology, and law. Interest in human rights within archival studies has exploded over the past decade. This burgeoning subfield has exposed the role of records, records creators, archivists, and users in the committal and subsequent adjudication of, resistance to, or reconciliation for the most egregious human rights violations around the globe, including genocide, rape, mass incarceration, and other crimes against humanity (Ketelaar 2002; Harris 2007; Stinnett 2008; Levy and Sznaider 2010; 1 The symposium was generously funded by a grant from the University of California Pacific Rim Research Program, with support from UCLA’s Center for Information as Evidence, UCLA’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies Indonesian Studies Program, UCLA’s African Studies Center, and the Charles E. Young Research Library. Geoffrey Robinson served as PI for the Pacific Rim Research Program grant and co-organizer of the event and Kathy Carbone provided administrative expertise. The author would also like to acknowledge Marika Cifor for her administrative and editorial help with this special issue and Ricardo Punzalan for his suggestions regarding this introduction. More information about the symposium can be found at http://uclahumanrightsarchives.wordpress.com.