One final comment on the ICA meeting in Mexico City. I had the opportunity to hear Trudy Huskamp Peterson, SAA past president and former Acting Archivist of the United States, speak about the work of swisspeace. Trudy is chair of ICA’s Human Rights Working Group and also served as archivist of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She has worked with numerous governments, groups, and organizations on archives issues and was the advisor to the National Police Historical Archive of Guatemala (Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional (AHPN).
swisspeace is a practice-oriented peace research institute based at the University of Basel whose mission focuses on contributing to the improvement of conflict prevention and conflict transformation. The institute is developing and applying new peacebuilding tools and methodologies through its Archives and Dealing with the Past Project. Of special interest is a proposed program for providing safe havens for archives at risk whereby the digital records will be stored elsewhere for permanent protection and retention.
swisspeace has been developing these tools focusing on four principles which are part of their Conceptual Framework:
- The right to know
- The right to justice
- The right to reparations
- The guarantee of non-recurrence
Off the Record 