Documentation, Human Rights and Transitional Justice

Abstract

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 past of human rights violations as well as for ongoing human rights campaigns. The documentation of past human rights violations can help with the prosecution of perpetrators, identification of victims for reparations programmes, and the planning of memorials. It can also contribute to the embedding of a new human rights culture through the active dissemination of personal testimonies which can sensitize the public to past violations, assist in rewriting of school textbooks and other educational materials, and lead to recommendations for new forms of human rights practice. These are practical measures of dealing with the past which are all underpinned by accurate knowledge of violations and the contexts which made them possible. But at a deeper level, information, testimonies and archives can shape narratives of the past and the future, and they can arguably help to define a new social contract between citizens and the state following gross human rights violations, and give voice to ongoing tensions and disagreements about what, in fact, constitutes the past. That being said, the identification, protection, preservation and management of archives and the collection of testimonies related to human rights violations, as well as their dissemination and utility within transitional justice mechanisms, has often been overlooked. Both partners of the editorial team, Incore (International Conflict Research Institute, based at Ulster University) and swisspeace (an associate research institute of the University of Basel), have been working on addressing this gap by bringing together academics, practitioners and policymakers. At swisspeace the ‘Archives and Dealing with the Past’ project is a joint initiative of the Human Security Division of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the Swiss Federal Archives and swisspeace (see http://archivesproject.swisspeace. ch). In addition to research, publications and training, the project operates as a platform bringing together diverse actors working on archives in the context of dealing with the past processes and to this end organizes a regular conference. In 2012 the focus was ‘The Importance of Archives in Dealing with the Past’, in 2013 ‘Archives of Transitional Justice Mechanisms’, and in 2015 ‘Securing Archives at Risk’. (The report of the 2015 conference