Archives of Human Rights and Historical Memory

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This project focuses on Colombia, with specific reference to symbolic reparations, which are a fundamental part of the peace process. Symbolic reparation for human rights abuses includes the act of listening to victims, the recording of testimonies, and the preservation of archives of this material. The role of symbolic reparations in transitional contexts is increasingly being recognised as just as important as material reparations, due to their potential to promote redress, foster solidarity, reweave a community's social fabric, and restore the dignity of victims and survivors.Within this context, archives of human rights and historical memory have a particularly important role to play, given that they are instruments for recording testimony and experiences of the conflict. Moreover, they are formally recognized in Colombia as one of the mechanisms for transitional justice, to ensure the guarantees for the victims of truth, justice, full reparation and non-repetition.Informed by these recommendations, our project engages with four NGOs which have created their own archives. The archives with which we will work are often fragmented; are often housed in unofficial catalogues or spaces; are often vulnerable, both to material deterioration, due to environmental factors such as humidity and heat, and to digital loss, due to inadequate digital backups; are at risk due to the continuation of armed conflict in some areas, and threats to local community leaders and curators of these same archives; and are in need of organization and preservation. This project aims to address this need by providing a robust mechanism for the archiving of these resources. We do so through a tailored, participatory approach, in which we work with the NGOs in a genuinely collaborative manner throughout.Firstly, we will undertake meetings with these NGOs to understand fully their needs, and start to develop the concepts informing our proposed toolkit. This will involve interviews and questionnaires with them, as well as wider discussion, around the issues they have encountered when: recording testimony from victims; collating testimonies; and preserving testimony and other memory materials. Following on from this, we will design and develop a toolkit, entitled The Memory Box: Toolkit for the Curation and Preservation of Human Rights and Historical Memory Archives. This toolkit will contain pedagogical and practical materials, encompassing how to undertake memory workshops; how to undertake archiving workshops; best practice for the digitization of resources; and the basic elements needed for successful archival preservation. A pilot version of this toolkit will be prepared, and then launched and tested with the four NGOs collaborating with us on this project. At this pilot stage, an event will be held with each NGO to test out the toolkit, discuss how it would work or be adapted for their particular context or needs, and flag up any particular concerns or needs for amendment to the toolkit.Subsequently, building on the feedback gained at these pilot events, we will refine the toolkit, and produce the finalized version. We will then formally launch the finalized toolkit, which will enable these and other NGOs to develop best practice for the management of their own archives, the tools for them to begin to manage their own processes of curation, and the best practice for the digitization of their resources.An important next step in our project is to set in train a series of steps to ensure the understanding of, and societal use of, these archives and resources within the context of the armed conflict in Colombia, and we will organize public-facing events to enable the visibility, sharing and societal use of these existing archives. Finally, we will launch a network of managers and curators of Human Rights and Historical Memory Archives to ensure legacy and continuing impact.