WITNESS, Author at WITNESS Blog

Archives lead to arrests in Guatemalan disappearance case In a stunning development springing from the discovery of the Guatemalan Secret Police Archives, The National Security Archive the National Security Archive has posted declassified U.S. documents in a 25-year old disappearance case. Edgar Fernando García, a student leader and trade union activist, was captured by Guatemalan security forces in 1984 during the height of the state-sponsored terrorism of the Guatemalan civil war. The documents show that García’s capture was an organized political abduction orchestrated at the highest levels of the Guatemalan government. March 19, 2009
Upcoming events: archiving, open video, oral history and more There are a number of recently-announced conferences or workshops coming up in 2009 which are worth checking out: SOIMA 2009: Safeguarding Sound and Image Collections November 17 – December 11, 2009 New Delhi, India This 4-week course will provide an overview of issues related to the preservation and access of sound and image materials e.g., […] March 17, 2009
Human Rights Archives: 3 US collections Robin Kirk of the Duke Center for Human Rights writes about Duke’s Archive for Human Rights on her blog, Talking Rights. She has also posted links to recordings of presentations from the recent Forum on Human Rights in Mexico City, which I posted about here. Listen to human rights archivists from three US academic collecting […] February 13, 2009
Thomas Lubanga Trial at the ICC: The Second Week The second week of accused Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga's trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) came to a close with the father of the boy soldier that recanted his testimony late last week, and suggested he had been coached on what to say. February 6, 2009
Thomas Lubanga Trial at the ICC 2009 – Day 4 Bukeni Waruzi, program coordinator for Africa and the Middle East at WITNESS, sends his last vlog from The Hague where he has been an NGO observer at the first ever trial at the International Criminal Court for Thomas Lubanga, accused of conscripting children under the age of 15 for soldiering in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. January 29, 2009
Thomas Lubanga Trial at the ICC 2009 – Day 2 Bukeni Waruzi, program coordinator for Africa and the Middle East for WITNESS, reflects on Thomas Lubanga's defense team argument on Day 2 of the trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Bukeni also highlights that tomorrow is the first day when witnesses will participate in the trial. January 27, 2009
Documenting Truth: new Publication from ICTJ The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) has just released Documenting Truth, a report of best practices for human rights documentation. The 30-page report is the result of work by the Documentation Affinity Group (DAG), a peer-to-peer network of six diverse NGOs: the ICTJ, the Documentation Center of Cambodia, the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala, Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, Humanitarian Law Center (Belgrade), and the Iraq Memory Foundation. January 26, 2009
Thomas Lubanga Trial at the ICC 2009 – Day 1 The first trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) commenced on January 27, 2009 with the trial of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga - and video played a prominent role. January 26, 2009
How to Get Involved with the Thomas Lubanga Trial at the ICC Here are some useful links to stay involved in the Lubanga Trial: January 22, 2009
"We work in the fourth dimension": interview with Ian Wilson The UNESCO Courier recently published this interview with Ian Wilson, Librarian and Archivist of Canada, who was elected President of the International Council of Archives (ICA) in July 2008. Wilson discusses how archives are important to human rights struggles and to communal and historical memory. January 5, 2009
Video leads to NYPD indictment Last summer’s video of NYPD officer Patrick Pogan attacking a cyclist has resulted in Pogan’s indictment. The video, viewed over 1.6 million times on YouTube, clearly showed Pogan attacking the cyclist, brutally and without provocation. I-Witness Video has more on their blog. December 23, 2008
"Treatment of History a Bellwether of Human Rights" The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience has distributed this statement pertaining to the recent raid and seizure of Human Rights Center Memorial's archive (thanks Bryan and Sam for forwarding): December 19, 2008
Intl Forum on Archives & Human Rights I spent several days last week at the International Forum on Archives and Human Rights in Mexico City. Although originally billed as an international conference to bring to together up to 500 archivists and others, it was in fact a small gathering, with only a handful of attendees from outside of Mexico, no prior promotion, […] December 16, 2008
War Behind Me The New York Times Book section reviewed a book by Deborah Nelson about her investigation into war crimes in Vietnam in the archive of the University of Michigan. She points out that here, the archive was used, in a way, not to unfold the cases and sentence those responsible, but for covering up the atrocities […] December 12, 2008
from Mexico City… I marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights here in Mexico City, at the conference International Forum on Archives and Human Rights. One of the people I met is Robin Kirk, Director of the Duke University Human Rights Center, whose blog from the conference is here. I’ll write some thoughts of […] December 12, 2008