rights and responsibilities
Rights and responsibilities:
The role of the archivist
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A review of the news of human rights and records during the year 2013 shows:
On acquisition and appraisal and disposal: In Argentina, the Minister of Defense
announced that records of the military junta, 1976-1983, including the secret
minutes of its meetings, were found in the basement of the headquarters of the
Argentine Air Force. In Brazil, a report produced by the public prosecutor in 1967 on
the abuse of indigenous peoples by officials of the Indian Protection Service (SPI)
and thought to have been destroyed by a fire at the Agriculture Ministry was found
in the archives of the Indian Museum in Rio. In Iraq the de-Baathification process is
nearing an end, and the commission that has managed the de-Baathification and
has the files of the Baath Party now needs to ensure that the records of the Party, as
required by the commission's law, are kept in a "permanent Iraqi archive."1 South
Korea's National Archives declared the records of a home for the women who were
forced into sex slavery by Japan during World War II "critical records with national
value that require permanent preservation"But in Australia, with archival
approval, records important to a child abuse investigation were shredded and in
Canada records of x-rays and medical treatments in a veteran's hospital were
destroyed, although the persons are still alive.2
On arrangement and description: In the United Kingdom, the National Archives
completed the description and release of the records of the Foreign and Common
wealth Office (FCO) known as "migrated archives". These records were transferred
to the Archives beginning in 2012 after being held secretly by the FCO since the end
of the British colonial administrations and finally acknowledged to exist during the
proceedings of a lawsuit brought by Kenyans in 2011. The records provide evidence of
mistreatment of Kenyans during the lastyears of British colonial rule; they have
been granted monetary compensation. Other former colonies, including those in
the Caribbean, are examining the records for possible legal actions against the U. K.
government. In Albania, records of pensions, social security and other benefits,
which the country's retirees depend on, are being verified, scanned and described
for retrieval.3
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1 De-Baathification is the process to "intellectually, administratively, politically, culturally and economically
dismantle the Ba'ath Party system in Iraqi society, state institutions, and civil society institutions." The
de-Baathification process was begun pursuant to the Coalition Provisional Authority's Order 1 in 2003; in
2008 Iraq passed a law establishing The Supreme National Commission for Accountability and Justice to
manage de-Baathification and gave the Commission a number of responsibilities for creating and preserving
archives. Human Rights Working Group News of the International Council on Archives, 2013-01,
http://www.ica.org/?lid=12315&bid=1082
2 All references in the first three paragraphs are from the 2013 issues of Human Rights Working Group News:
Argentina 2013-11; Brazil 2013-05; Iraq 2013-01; South Korea 2013-11; Australia 2013-02, 04 and 07;
Canada 2013-11, http://www.ica.org/?lid=12315&bid=1082
3 United Kingdom 2013-06,10 and 11; Albania 2013-09.
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