International Criminal Tribunals

An outcome of the Columbia University Human Rights conference (Oct. 2007) was a recommendation that educational institutions with an interest in human rights teaching and research advocate that the U.S. take a position in favor of UN action to preserve records of several international criminal tribunals established by the United Nations to investigate genocide and other human rights violations in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, and other locations. Many of the courts have no mandate to preserve the sensitive and voluminous records of their proceedings for future use.

The Center for Research Libraries, on behalf of its member institutions, contacted the U.S. Department of State Office of War Crimes regarding this issue. A copy of the letter, co-signed by 14 Provosts, is available here.

A response from Clint Williamson, U.S. Department of State from April 2008 is available here.

CRL continues to monitor the activities of the courts, the UN Working Group on Tribunals, and Advisory Committee on Archives, and will post updates in the HRADP community workspace.

* Update from State (8/25/2008): The Office of War Crimes Issues is awaiting the findings of the Advisory Committee chaired by Judge Richard Goldstone before issuing any recommendations on the matter. According to Security Council Report for August 2008, "the Advisory Committee on Archives to the Registrars set up in October 2007 is expected to present its final recommendations to the tribunals’ registrars in the next few months." -jts