LibGuides: Duke Human Rights Archive: Human Rights Abuses

Key Words

Genocide
War atrocities (World War I, World War II, Jewish holocaust)
War crimes & criminals

Related Libguides

Guide to Human Rights Abuses, War, and Genocide

Many of the collections and print material in the Human Rights Archive and Rubenstein Library contain documentation on human rights abuses wrought through war, genocide, and organized violence. This documentation may be in the form of eye witness testimony, testimony before commissions or tribunes, oral history, or audio-video material produced by media groups. Some of the most significant collections are listed below. Search the terms in the "Keywords" box for a complete list of related collections.

International Center for Transitional Justice records
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) is a non-profit organization that assists post-conflict, conflict, and democratic countries in pursuing accountability for mass atrocities and human rights abuses.
International Monitor Institute. Burma videotapes
Comprises audiovisual materials related to IMI's documentation of contemporary conflicts and human rights violations in Burma (Myanmar). These audiovisual records largely document the activities, interviews, speeches, press conferences and ceremonies of political figures, especially Aung San Suu Kyi, and document the activities of political and military institutions such figures represent, including the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Records also include extensive network and independent story packages of Burma and footage of human rights conflicts.
International Monitor Institute. Rwanda Videotapes and Audiotapes
The collection contains videotape segments of news broadcasts as well as documentaries of the Rwandan genocide, including footage of massacre sites and refugee camps, and interviews with both victims and perpetrators of the genocide. The collection also contains audiotapes of broadcasts from Radio Télévision Libres des Milles Collines (RTLM) and Radio Rwanda, classified as incitement to genocide, as well as several recordings produced by Reporters without Borders.
International Monitor Institute records
The non-profit agency International Monitor Institute (IMI) operated between 1993 and 2003, primarily to assist international war-crimes tribunals by collecting, indexing and organizing visual evidence of violations of international human rights law. Countries represented include: Burma (Myanmar), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Kuwait, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Thailand.
Japanese war crimes trials, 1946-1948.
Actual working papers and documents used by the participants in the Japanese war crimes trials held in Tokyo between April, 1946 and April 1948. Documents include: a narrative summary; prosecution and defense summations, documents and exhibits; and the judgement.
Jerome J. Shestack papers
Jerome Shestack was a prominent lawyer and human rights advocate. His papers chiefly document the leadership roles he undertook for social justice organizations such as the American Bar Association, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the International League for Human Rights, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and many others.
Juan Méndez papers
Juan E. Méndez is a lawyer and human rights activist who is the former president of the International Center for Transitional Justice. This collection contains a portion of his writings, conference materials, subject and research files, and materials documenting his work with ICTJ and the United Nations, where he served as the Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide.
Women's Refugee Commission
The Women's Refugee Commission was established in 1989 as part of the International Rescue Committee. It advocates for laws, policies, and programs to improve the lives and protect the rights of refugee and internally displaced women, children, and adolescents. Countries represented include Cambodia, Afghanistan, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Thailand, Myanmar, Israel, Guatemala, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Liberia, Kosovo, Iraq, Zambia, Tanzania, the United States, and others.