HLC Archive Included in the Human Rights Archives Directory

On Monday, November 14th, 2011, the Humanitarian Law Center was informed that the HLC Archive has been included in the Human Rights Archives Directory (HRAD), a project of the International Council of Archives (ICA).

The ICA Human Rights Archive Working Group, which is tasked to register organizations from all over the world into their address book, has recognized the Humanitarian Law Center as an organization, which contributes greatly to the protection of human rights with its documenting work.

The International Council on Archives (ICA) is dedicated to the effective management of records and the preservation, care and use of the world’s archival heritage through its representation of records and archive professionals across the globe. The ICA Human Rights Archive Directory professional program offers essential information on archives, which contain primary documents witnessing human rights violations, and organizations that document human rights violations and permanently preserve documents thereof.

In 2003, ICA and UNESCO adopted a resolution on the protection program for organizations and archives, which contain documents on human rights violations, as they were aware of the significance of such documents for the preservation of collective memory of states which went through wars in their recent history, since they represent irreplaceable testimonies about events.

The Archive of the Humanitarian Law Center is devoted to the collection and preservation of materials concerning mass human rights violations committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, as well as the preservation of the copied archive of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia. A detailed description of the Humanitarian Law Center’s Archive is now available in the International Council of Archives Human Rights Archive Directory, and it is available here.