Projects 2011/059 and 2012/035. COLOMBIA
Census of archives of human rights organisations in Antioquia (Colombia) (1st and 2nd phase)
In Colombia, unlike in other countries, the armed conflict is still raging, which gives rise to a paradoxical situation in which the implementation of transitional justice measures must coexist with and confront the real persistence of violent power struggles. Attempts to reconstruct and preserve memory are often jeopardised or frustrated by the continuity of the war. As a result, there are events that remain silenced and those affected are still waiting to be supported by the rights to truth, justice and reparation that the state must guarantee to all its citizens.
The project “Recovery of archives and documents in the Southern Cone and of dictatorships and repressive governments in Ibero-America”, led by Archiveros Sin fronteras Internacional, arose from the need to identify this type of document and to facilitate knowledge about the possibilities of consultation, contents, end dates, conditions of the documents and to define guidelines for their organisation, conservation and management. From the University of Antioquia, which has had an archivistics programme since 2005, there was an interest in joining this project by developing another project that forms part of the aforementioned one and has been called the “Census of Archives in the Human Rights Archives Sector in Colombia”.
The importance of this project, carried out in two phases, lies in the fact that the identification of these archives can benefit justice, victims and, of course, serve as a source for research. It also represents an opportunity to reflect, from the archival discipline, on the fundamental role that archives play as a memory and testimony of society.
In order to create the Census, an inventory of the archives of non-governmental organisations was carried out, with the aim of locating documentation relating to the victims of the armed conflict that the country has been suffering for decades. The application of the census is closely related to the actions to comply with the Victims and Land Restitution Law (Law 1448 of 2011), which states that “Documents that are not private and are stored in private and public archives containing the violations covered in Article 3 of this Law will constitute heritage […]” (Article 145, paragraph 4). It is recognised that archives are vital insofar as they contribute to the reconstruction of events, and therefore archives related to human rights violations have begun to occupy an important place.
Nine organisations worked on the project, in the following order: Asociación de Víctimas Unidas del Municipio de Granada (ASOVIDA), Asociación Provincial de Víctimas a Ciudadanos y ciudadanas (APROVIACI), Asociación Municipal de Mujeres de San Vicente Ferrer (AMUSAVI), Asociación de víctimas de la violencia Generadores de Progreso (GENPROG), Asociación de Personeros del Oriente Antioqueño (ASPOA), Asociación Municipal de Mujeres del Municipio de Marinilla (ASOMMA), Asociación de Víctimas Revivir una nueva Esperanza, del Municipio de la Unión, Asociación de Víctimas por la Paz y la Esperanza, del Municipio de Sonsón, and Asociación de Víctimas Caminos de Esperanza, del Municipio Argelia.
The basic description of the archives corresponds to that of the international standards and is divided into seven different areas: Identification, Context, Content and Structure, Conditions of Access and Use, Related Documents, Notes and Control of the description. The Comprehensive Archival Diagnostic Format, a document drawn up by the General Archive of the Nation (Colombia), was also applied.
The information collected includes the origins of the organisation, its evolution and changes over time, a description of the activities carried out and its document production, identifying strengths and weaknesses in the management of its document collections, so that a planning of actions can be developed to help record and conserve documents correctly.
“Document of archival recommendations for human rights organisations”:
DOCUMENT
You can consult the project’s technical report here:
Projects 2010/081, 2011/039 and 2012/143. COLOMBIA
Recovery of the Collective Memory of the Trujillo-Valle del Cauca Victims’ Families Association. In search of truth, justice and reparation for the victims of the armed conflict in Colombia (1st, 2nd and 3rd phases)
The Trujillo massacre is a systematic and widespread series of crimes against humanity that took place between 1986 and 1994 in the municipalities of Trujillo, Riofrío and Bolívar, with a total of 342 victims.
Trujillo continues to be a victim of violence today, since after that cruel massacre, the crimes are repeated, with the serious aggravating factor that those who live in the area are under repression by paramilitary structures.
The case catalogued as No. 11007 was brought before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and in 1995 the “Trujillo Report” emerged as a result of the commission’s intervention. Among some of the achievements was the public recognition by the President of the Republic, Ernesto Samper Pizano, of the Colombian State’s responsibility for the actions and omissions of public servants in the occurrence of the violent events in Trujillo.
La Asociación de familias de las víctimas de los hechos violentos de Trujillo (AFAVIT) es una organización sin ánimo de lucro que lucha contra la impunidad, trabajan por la construcción y recuperación de la Memoria y exigen verdad, justicia y reparación ante crímenes de lesa humanidad.
AFAVIT has carried out this project in three phases, the aim of which is to safeguard, organise and disseminate documentary, audiovisual, photographic and hemerographic heritage. During the three phases, although especially in the first one, training was very important, with workshops on archival material.
In the first phase, work was done on organising and classifying audiovisual, photographic and hemerographic documentation from 1990 to 2005 and its subsequent digitisation and dissemination.
In the second phase the work continued, now covering the years 2005-2010 and progressing in the training of AFAVIT members.
The third phase saw the inspection of all the archival material, which had been classified, systematised, carpeted and placed in their corresponding boxes. In addition, the digitisation of the missing documentary material (textual, photographic and hemerographic) from the years 2010 to 2014 continued.
To find out more about the Trujillo Masacre, you can consult the report by the National Centre for Historical Memory of Colombia “Trujillo, a tragedy that never ends” here: Report
You can consult the project’s technical report and the rest of the information here:
Project 2008/076. COLOMBIA
Recovering historical evidence of the human rights of black people and women in Colombia
Colombia has been characterised by a marked lack of awareness and violation of human rights, especially in the sectors with the highest levels of vulnerability: women and black people.
This project by the Colegio Mayor de Antioquia University Institution was a research project to recover the historical evidence that exists on the subject of rights and legislation – from colonial times to the present day – for these groups.
The specific objective was to produce a document describing and analysing the human rights situation of black people and women in Colombia through the recovery of the historical archive relating to the situation of these two groups of the Colombian population. Not only does it focus on description, but it also carries out a historical and contextual analysis of these people, who are generally excluded and discriminated against.
With the task of tracing, storing and highlighting the normative memory that regulated the various events in which the excluded groups of Afro-Colombians and women took part, we wanted to begin the journey towards a necessary transparency that explains and articulates the disciplinary knowledge that accounts for the symbolic systems in which these actors acted.
The results of this research are only a first approach to these issues, opening up a debate on these topics and starting a line of research that needs to be developed in greater depth.
To consult the publication, click here: PUBLICATION
You can find more information here:
Project 2010/090. COLOMBIA
Fuentes para la reconstrucción de la Memoria Histórica de las comunidades indígenas, afrodescendientes y población vulnerable en Colombia (1st phase)
This project seeks to reconstruct the historical memory of communities that have been victims of the Colombian conflict, with the aim of contributing to the reconstruction of their social fabric, through the knowledge and dissemination of their own history and roots, documented in the archives held by the AGN, which contain valuable information about their territories, customs, social processes of peaceful resistance and oppression, urban and architectural transformations, and processes of political and collective community participation.
The target audience for the project was young people and teenagers from the Pastos community, with the aim of making them realise the importance of the documents kept at the AGN for the recovery of their historical memory within the framework of the Victims Act. To this end, in two training sessions, the basic concepts of the Victims’ Act, memory and archives were explained, making clear the relationships between these laws.
After this, they moved on to the workshops, which began with a talk with the community leaders, where they recounted their experiences in relation to the situations suffered as a result of the conflict. The workshops consisted of two blocks. The first sought to establish the general state of the current situation and reconstruct a concrete situation from the middle of the century based on AGN documents and oral tradition. The second block consisted of socialising the results of the workshops.
Consult the Census Guide to Archives in Spain and Ibero-America: CENSO GUÍA
You can consult the project’s technical report here: