Session 5 Representation, Justice and Power

Friday 11 April 2.35-4.30

Giulia Barrera
  • Italian Archives Directorate
  • Rome
Of Condors and Judges: Archival Musing Over a Judicial Investigation

This paper is based on my experience as history consultant for the Prosecutor's Office of Rome. From 2003 through 2006, I participated in a judicial investigation regarding twenty-five Italian citizens (Italo-Uruguayans, Italo-Argentineans and Italo-Chileans) who were made forcibly disappear in Argentina and other Latin American countries in the 1970s. Many of such kidnappings and killings occurred while the victims were on exile in neighbouring Southern Cone countries; we thus investigated the possible role in such killings played by the so-called Operation Condor (more precisely Sistema Cóndor/ Condor System, a secret coordination of Southern Cone intelligence services, aimed at transnational operations).

Even if I was mostly asked to perform historical research - rather than archival work - this experience provided me with a number of opportunities to reflect over the relationship between archives, repressive regimes and the pursuit of justice.

The paper focuses on two questions:

  • What can the archives of security services per se - apart from the content of individual documents - reveal about the nature of repressive regimes? Repressive regimes typically develop a complex and oversized state repressive structure that produce bulky archives. In such a context, archives signal bureaucratization of terror. But what happens when repressive regimes entrust death squads with the task of eliminating political opponents? What kind of archival production occurs in such cases - if any? And what archives would reveal, in such cases, about the nature of the repressive system?
  • How do judicial investigations impact on the construction of the archival memory of human rights violations? In post-dictatorial countries, conflict over the pursuit of justice and conflict over archives are often interconnected. The police archives of Paraguay are a case in point: they were saved from destruction by two judges, were seized by the judiciary and remain in the custody of the Paraguayan High Court of Justice. Conflicts could also concern individual documents that are the lonely survivors from destroyed archives. In such cases, for want of archival criteria to prove the documents' authenticity, inclusions in court files can be instrumental in validating. The paper explores some instances of similar intersections between judicial activity, definition of documentary evidence and archives.

Giulia Barrera has worked at the Italian Archives Directorate from 1990. Prior to that she worked at the Italian Central State Archives. Her research interests are in racial hierarchies in a colonial setting and her PhD from Northwestern University was on Colonial Affairs: Italian men, Eritrean women, and the Construction of Racial Hierarchies in Colonial Eritrea (1882-1941).


Thomas Connors
  • National Public Broadcasting Archives
  • University of Maryland
The Tainted Archive: Political, Moral and Philosophical Considerations

Over the past several years, a number of US government agencies have been criticized for refusing to share information with Congress and the American public. It is increasingly coming to light that information they are willing to share may be the product of deliberate distortion of the truth. This takes the form of sham press conferences, propaganda news releases, censored reports and disinformation in general.

A recent example of this was a fake news briefing conducted by a high ranking official of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). During the briefing the official answered softball questions asked by FEMA staff posing as reporters. The briefing was announced only fifteen minutes before it was scheduled to begin so real reporters were not able to attend. During the briefing the official in charge praised the agency for its handling of the recent California wildfires that left many people homeless. There was an implied contrast to the agency's botched relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The briefing's purpose was purely political.

Let us assume that FEMA news briefings are scheduled for transfer to the US National Archives at a particular point in time along with other permanent FEMA records. What is the appraising archivist's obligation to the truth of the matter - that the briefing was faked, that records of the briefing are not like the records of a real news briefing in that real reporters did not ask questions, this was not spontaneous give and take but rather a set up. How should the archivists who process such records once onsite describe them?

Should these records be seen as authentic, accurate records of government actions and transactions?

My paper will explore the philosophical implications of this and other examples of tainted archives in terms of ascertainment of the truth content of any archival records, the moral obligations of the archivist and the increasing politicization of the archival record.


Tom A. Adami
  • Records Management and Archives Unit.
  • United Nations Mission in Sudan [UNMIS]
Peacekeeping and Archives - The United Nations in Sudan

It is intended to discuss the issues surrounding the management of recorded information in a peacekeeping setting in both practical terms and the more esoteric benefits of records for peacebuilding, justice and reconciliation. The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations [DPKO] has undergone a period of major review and reorganisation in the past 3-5 years. That includes the recordkeeping and archival aspects of its work as well. Centralisation of policies and guidelines has defined certain major directions and objectives of DPKO but there is still room for individual license to be innovative and resourceful. Practice directives, on-line training modules, taxonomy, retention schedules and soon to be implemented Department wide electronic records management solution, will all enhance the overall quality of recorded information used, maintained and preserved over time. There is an acknowledgement at senior levels that information is essential to the management of so many missions all over the world. More emphasis is being placed on learning from the past. The Best Practice Section of DPKO has created a records management best practice discussion group and there are numerous records management references in the 'lessons learnt' on-line library.

Apart from the above practical aspects of the work of managing recorded information in a peacekeeping mission it is intended to explore the possible uses of the records created, used, gathered, maintained and preserved during the life of a peacekeeping mission. How can this work assist in the process of peacekeeping / building? The five main responsibilities of human rights archives are to ensure historical accountability, retain memory of the victims and survivors, support prosecution, document the extremes of repression, and chronicle the individual's power against the state. The work of the information managers in DPKO will aid in those five main areas.

The situation in Sudan and in particular the Darfur states, is grave. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement [CPA] between the north/south and the Darfur Peace Agreement [DPA] between the Khartoum government and rebel forces is wavering between complete collapse and very slow stunted developments. The documenting of these developments is important for future research. The Joint Mediation Support Team [JMST] which is a complex ad-hoc body of UN/African Union [AU] composition is a classic example of how the UN and DPKO operate. The records of the JMST's discussions, with all parties to the Darfur conflict, are of immense importance. I propose to elaborate on these records as well as the records of the UNMIS Sections dealing with human rights, return and reintegration, political affairs and rule of law.

Tom Adami has been an information manager since 1990 when he started with the Australian civil service and worked for the Department of Defence [Navy] in Sydney, Australia. After several other appointments he was engaged in 1997 by the National Archives of Australia in Canberra to work on electronic recordkeeping projects. In 1999 he joined the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [UN - ICTR] as Chief Archivist. Notable achievements of his time with ICTR were to digitise the archive, establish the audiovisual collection and provide web access to the public records. In 2007 he took up an appointment with the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations [DPKO] with the Mission in Sudan [UNMIS]. Based in Khartoum, he is responsible for the management of all the recorded information assets of the mission throughout Sudan including the Darfur region. He has taken an active interest in the African archival scene and presented at ESARBICA 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique and at a human rights colloquium in Dakar, Senegal in 2003. He has presented at several conferences notably at Society of American Archivist in Alabama, USA 2001, ICA CITRA in Cape Town South Africa 2003 and the Assoc. of Canadian Archivists conference in St. John's Newfoundland Canada 2006.


Alistair Tough
  • HATII, University of Glasgow
The philosophy of the archive and the social creation of knowledge

Philosophy is generally understood to be concerned with abstract thought and logical analysis. Even the most reified thinking, however, takes place in a context or contexts. Recent debates amongst educators of record keeping professionals and others with an interest in the field have been particularly influenced by colleagues based in Australia, Canada and South Africa. There is nothing mysterious about this. Rampant corruption, Pentagon funding and the collapse of Apartheid provide a significant element in the respective backgrounds. It is interesting to pose the question whether (and to what extent) the recent upsurge in intellectual endeavour in the United Kingdom may be accounted for in terms of the Research Assessment Exercise. If there is some evidence for this, has RAE moved debate onto an agenda of audit culture and concern with the other (i.e. a New Labour agenda)?

The proposed paper will focus on the social creation of knowledge in relation to archives and record keeping paying particular attention to Commonwealth countries in Africa. The successive challenges that have emerged over the last half century will be analysed and commented on. These include: comprehending and mediating an archive created by outsiders; attempts to rectify perceived deficiencies in the archive (oral history, copying of 'migrated' archives, the absence of descendants' testimony to the East African slave trade); the reluctance of African rulers to transfer records to the archive (and the role of party archives in one party states); marginalisation and renewal; responsibility for record keeping as a tool of accountability; the impact of Microsoft and analogous products on both record keeping and accountability; the impact(s) of acute resource scarcity; the phenomenon of the state as a monopoly employer; and the impact(s) of donor agendas (for example, is rhetoric about transparency an instance of what Fanon called 'ventriloquism'?). In addition, the question will be posed whether recent post-modernist analyses generated in post-Apartheid South Africa by Caroline Hamilton, Verne Harris and other academic commentators 'fit' with the experiences of Commonwealth countries in north of the Limpopo.

Recurring questions to be considered will include:

  • Are there general patterns?
  • Do these have a resonance with events and issues elsewhere?
  • Do they have a particular relevance for British educators charged with responsibility for the postgraduate education of record keeping professionals from developing countries?
  • Finally, what does this analysis suggest about the validity of attempts to generate a philosophy of the archive?
  • Is a single philosophy that transcends culture and geography attainable?

Alistair G Tough is a Senior Research Fellow in the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute in the University of Glasgow, UK. He is also the Archivist and Records Manager of the National Health Service Greater Glasgow and Clyde Board. He has held visiting research fellowships at Michigan, Oxford and Stanford universities. He served on the British Standards Institution's sub committee on Records Management, 2000-05. In 1999 and 2000 he was seconded to the Civil Service Department in Tanzania as an adviser to the Public Sector Reform Programme. He has undertaken Records Management consultancy work in Britain, Barbados, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Zambia. In 2002 he received the Annual Award of the Records Management Society of Great Britain. With Michael Moss he edited 'Record keeping in a hybrid environment' (Chandos, 2006).