Institute for International
Cooperation and Development Studies

The management of human rights archives and their potential for tackling the impunity for violence in Colombia

Date: 2024 October 21

At the beginning of October, the course “training for human rights archive managers: exile, internal exile and return” took place at the Faculty of Economics and Business (Sarriko campus), organised by Hegoa in collaboration with the Colombia National Centre for Historical Memory.

A total of 27 Colombian exiles and migrants participated in this course, who reside in different countries around the world (Germany, Belgium, Chile, Spain, the United States, Italy, France, Norway, Panama and Sweden, among others). The training, which took place between 1 and 4 October, was led by Myriam Loaiza (a restorer of movable property who is currently working on memorialisation at the Special Jurisdiction for Peace) and Gilberto Villa (Technical Director of Human Rights Archives at the Colombia National Centre for Historical Memory).

Thanks to the vast experience of the professionals in human rights archives, as well as the experience of those attending the course in managing their personal, community and family archives, discussions were held on the security and protection of human rights archives.

The concepts of access and openness of archives were also discussed, taking into account the benefits and risks that they could entail against the backdrop of an ongoing conflict. The course also explored the strategies that organisations have developed concerning the use of human rights archives, whether to denounce the rights violations suffered, carry out political advocacy or raise awareness of exile as a victimising event.

During the course, in addition to offering innovative tools for the management of archives in the defence of human rights, there was a debate on how to properly use these types of archives for political advocacy in order to put an end to the impunity for victimising events arising in the ongoing conflict in Colombia. 

This activity is part of the project “Strengthening the Exile Network in Support of the Legacy of the Commission for the Clarification of the Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition of Colombia (2024)”, funded by the Directorate for Human Rights, Victims and Diversity of the Basque Government.



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