Archives in Practice: ICA Member-led perspectives on archival practice worldwide
The First Tuesday Talks: 2021-2026
Perrine Canavaggio, SAHR Member 18 May 2026
(Une version française de ce blog est également disponible à la fin de l’article)
This series of talks, organized by the Section on Archives and Human Rights (ICA/SAHR) aims to explore the critical relationship between documentary heritage and the pursuit of truth, justice, memory, and reparation. Spanning cases from South Africa to Colombia, from Russia to Guatemala, from Canada to the Canary Islands and Gaza, the series demonstrates that archives are not passive repositories of the past — they are active instruments of accountability, democratic renewal, and social transformation.
In 2021 Trudy Peterson had the idea of presenting Zoom lectures on the theme archives and human rights followed by a discussion with participants on the first Tuesday of every two months. The sessions would alternate languages, and she asked me to organize them with Andreas Nef support. She made the three first talks and I took the lead in 2022. The talks take place at 16:00 CET (Paris time) to enable broad international participation; however, this schedule is less convenient for colleagues based in Asia. The languages used are mainly English, Spanish, and French, but we also had a session in Arabic and one in Russian. The audience is mainly composed of archival professionals and historians.
Since 2021, 28 Talks have been delivered and 27 are available on Youtube at ICA/SAHR Tuesday Talks - YouTube. The six most viewed talks are also the oldest sessions in the series: four in English, one in French, and one in Spanish. Unsurprisingly, the two talks with the highest number of views focus on two emblematic case studies: Graham Dominy on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (747 views) and Dagmar Hovestädt on the Stasi archives (511 views). They are followed by Peter Horsman on the Rwanda gacacas (414 views), Gilles Manceron on access to the archives of the Algerian War (291 views), Mariana Nazar on human rights, archives, and archivists in Argentina (239 views), and Giulia Barrera on the Italian Plan Condor trials (236 views).
The imperative to preserve records
A core and recurring tension in the series is between the duty to preserve documentary heritage and the political forces that seek to destroy or restrict its access. The South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission offers a stark illustration: the mass destruction of apartheid-era records before the 1994 elections left permanent gaps in the historical record, while subsequent governments failed to adequately fund the National Archives. The case of the UNRWA archive of Palestine refugee family files is also a good example: 30 million documents spanning five generations, rescued under bombardment in Gaza by Palestinian staff who transported holdings in garbage bags on flatbed trucks, then scanned in a basement in Amman. These records, documenting displacement since 1948, remain a living system that would be central to any future political settlement.
The boomerang effect of archives from former repressive regimes
A striking pattern across the series is what might be called the "boomerang effect": documents created by authoritarian regimes to control populations ultimately become evidence against those same regimes. The Stasi archives in East Germany, once machinery of repression, became after reunification one of the world's most important transitional justice tools. Similarly, Paraguay's "Terror Archives" and declassified US documents provided crucial judicial evidence for convicting military officers in the Italian Operation Condor trial. The European Network of Official Authorities in Charge of the Secret-Police Files demonstrates how professionally managed archives of communist-era security services serve both individual truth-seeking and the fight against historical revisionism.
Civil society filling state gaps
Where state institutions fall short, civil society organisations play a critical role. In Guatemala, the Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo's living archive has supported criminal prosecutions for decades under permanent threat, while the Catholic Church's REMHI project documented over 52,000 victims — though its director was assassinated two days after the report's launch. In Chile, the Vicaría de la Solidaridad continues to respond to judicial requests daily, decades after its creation. In Russia, Memorial International, liquidated by Russian courts in 2022, continues its work in exile, with digitisation as its primary survival strategy.
Access as a legal right and political battlefield
Several sessions address the issue of access to archives as both a legal right and a contested political space. In France, interministerial restrictions effectively blocked access to Algerian War records that should legally be open, until collective mobilisation secured a ruling from the Conseil d'État in 2021. Argentina raises the concern of "archival extractivism" — the selective removal of documents from their context for short-term political purposes, at the cost of permanently undermining entire collections.
Conclusion
Across all cases, the series affirms that archives require legal frameworks, institutional independence, sustained funding, and professional expertise — but above all, the commitment of practitioners willing to defend the right to truth against denial and destruction.
Nothing would be possible without the constant support of Andreas Nef and the help of Elena Rivas, Patrick Van den Nieuwenhof and Maria Paula Garcia Mosquera for promoting and advertising the talks through the various professional listservs. Thanks to Andreas, it is now possible to read the automatic transcription which displays as the presentation progresses. It is also possible to choose the language preferred during the talk, but this functionality is not available on YouTube.
Le cycle de débats du Premier Mardi : 2021-2026
Organisée par la Section Archives et Droits Humains (ICA/SAHR), cette série de conférences vise à explorer le lien essentiel entre le patrimoine documentaire et la quête de vérité, de justice, de mémoire et de réparation. À travers des études de cas allant de l'Afrique du Sud à la Colombie, de la Russie au Guatemala, du Canada aux îles Canaries et à Gaza, cette série montre que les archives ne sont pas de simples dépositaires passifs du passé, mais des outils actifs de responsabilisation, de renouveau démocratique et de transformation sociale.
En 2021, Trudy Peterson a eu l'idée de présenter des conférences en ligne (via Zoom) sur le thème Archives et droits humains, suivies d'une discussion avec les participants, le premier mardi du mois tous les deux mois. Les sessions alterneraient les langues et elle m'a demandé de les organiser avec le soutien d'Andreas Nef. Elle a animé les trois premières conférences, puis j'ai pris le relais en 2022. Les conférences ont lieu à 16h (heure d'Europe centrale) afin de permettre une large participation internationale, mais cet horaire ne convient pas à nos collègues asiatiques. Les langues utilisées sont principalement l'anglais, l'espagnol et le français mais nous avons eu aussi une session en arabe et une en russe. Le public est principalement composé de professionnels des archives et d'historiens.
Depuis 2021, 28 conférences ont eu lieu et 27 sont disponibles sur YouTube à ICA/SAHR Tuesday Talks - YouTube. Les six conférences les plus populaires sont aussi les plus anciennes : quatre en anglais, une en français et une en espagnol. Sans surprise, les deux conférences les plus visionnées sont deux cas emblématiques : celle de Graham Dominy sur la Commission Vérité et Réconciliation sud-africaine (747 vues) et celle de Dagmar Hoverstadt sur les archives de la Stasi (511 vues). Viennent ensuite Peter Horsman sur les Gacacas du Rwanda (414 vues), Gilles Manceron sur l’accès aux archives de la guerre d’Algérie (291 vues), Mariana Nazar sur les droits humains, les archives et les archivistes en Argentine (239 vues) et Giulia Barrera sur le procès du Plan Condor en Italie (236 vues).
L’impératif de préserver les documents
Une tension récurrente de cette série oppose le devoir de préserver le patrimoine documentaire aux forces politiques qui cherchent à le détruire ou à en restreindre l’accès. La Commission Vérité et Réconciliation d'Afrique du Sud en offre une illustration frappante : la destruction massive des archives de l'apartheid avant les élections de 1994 a laissé des lacunes irrémédiables dans le récit historique, tandis que les gouvernements suivants n'ont pas suffisamment financé les Archives nationales. Le cas des archives de l'UNRWA contenant les dossiers des familles de réfugiés palestiniens en est aussi un bon exemple : 30 millions de documents couvrant cinq générations, sauvés sous les bombardements à Gaza par le personnel palestinien qui les a transportés dans des sacs-poubelle par camions, puis numérisés dans un sous-sol à Amman. Ces archives, qui documentent les déplacements de population depuis 1948, constituent un fonds vivant qui serait essentiel à tout futur règlement politique.
L'effet boomerang des archives des anciens régimes répressifs
Un schéma frappant est ce que l'on pourrait appeler « l'effet boomerang » : les documents créés par les régimes autoritaires pour contrôler les populations deviennent finalement des preuves contre ces mêmes régimes. Les archives de la Stasi en Allemagne de l'Est, autrefois instrument de répression, sont devenues après la réunification l'un des outils les plus importants de la justice transitionnelle au monde. De même, les « Archives de la terreur » du Paraguay et les documents nord-américains déclassifiés ont fourni des preuves judiciaires cruciales pour la condamnation d'officiers lors du procès de l'opération Condor en Italie. Le Réseau européen des autorités officielles chargées des archives de la police secrète démontre comment des archives issues des services de sécurité de l'époque communiste, servent à la fois la recherche individuelle de la vérité et la lutte contre le révisionnisme historique.
La société civile comble les lacunes de l'État
Quand les institutions publiques sont défaillantes, les organisations de la société civile jouent un rôle essentiel. Au Guatemala, les archives vivantes du Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo ont soutenu les poursuites pénales pendant des décennies, malgré la menace permanente, tandis que le projet REMHI de l'Église catholique a recensé plus de 52 000 victimes – bien que son directeur ait été assassiné deux jours après la publication du rapport. Au Chili, le Vicariat de la Solidarité continue de répondre quotidiennement aux demandes judiciaires, des décennies après sa création. En Russie, Memorial International, liquidée par les tribunaux russes en 2022, poursuit son travail en exil, la numérisation étant sa principale stratégie de survie.
L'accès aux archives : un droit et un enjeu politique
Plusieurs sessions abordent la question de l'accès aux archives. En France, des restrictions interministérielles ont de facto bloqué l'accès aux documents relatifs à la guerre d'Algérie, pourtant accessibles au public, jusqu'à ce qu'une mobilisation collective obtienne une décision du Conseil d'État en 2021. L'Argentine soulève la question de l'« extractivisme archivistique » : le prélèvement sélectif de documents hors de leur contexte à des fins politiques à court terme, au risque de fragiliser durablement des fonds entiers.
Dans tous les cas étudiés, la série affirme que les archives nécessitent un cadre juridique adéquat, une indépendance institutionnelle, un financement durable et une expertise professionnelle – mais surtout, l'engagement de praticiens prêts à défendre le droit à la vérité contre le déni et la destruction.
Rien de tout cela n'aurait été possible sans le soutien constant d'Andreas Nef et l'aide d'Elena Rivas, Patrick Van den Nieuwenhof et Maria Paula Garcia Mosquera pour la promotion des conférences sur les différentes listes de diffusion professionnelles. Grâce à Andreas, il est désormais possible de lire la transcription automatique qui s'affiche au fur et à mesure de la présentation. Il est également possible de choisir la langue de la conférence, mais cette fonctionnalité n'est pas disponible sur YouTube.
Archival Science, Human Rights and Artificial Intelligence: The Luisa Cuesta Repository as a Specialized Archival Service in Uruguay
By Natalia Lima-Paysal & Fabián Hernández-Muñiz
28 April 2026
In debates on artificial intelligence in archives and archival science, attention tends to shift rapidly toward tools, automation, and innovation. The Uruguayan case of the Luisa Cuesta Repository proposes a different point of departure for so-called human rights archives. From an archival perspective, what is most significant here is not an isolated technological experiment, but rather the consolidation of a specialized archival service dedicated to the treatment, preservation, administration, and access of digital information related to serious human rights violations in the recent past. The Luisa Cuesta Repository constitutes a formal structure physically housed at the Universidad de la República, created through an agreement with the National Human Rights Institution and Ombudsman’s Office in order to guarantee the storage, organization, availability, and long-term preservation of that digital information.
Its archival specificity lies not only in safeguarding a digital holdings system, but also in organizing a set of professional archival functions defined from a post-custodial approach. The institutional and regulatory framework establishes that it provides archival consultation, reference, and guidance services, as well as access to and dissemination of the information contained in its digital holdings through computer tools developed for its management and operation. Access is likewise not granted indiscriminately, but rather through a regulated procedure: applicants must obtain a username and password, demonstrate the role under which they seek access, sign a responsibility commitment, and conduct consultation on site with professional assistance. In addition to this, reproductions are available upon request, the search logs are kept, and the articulation between access to information and the protection of personal data is guaranteed. From an archival point of view, this makes it possible to understand the Repository not simply as a search platform, but as a specialized service of documental mediation, restriction management, traceability of use, and professional guidance concerning archival information on Uruguay’s recent past.
In that sense, the relevance of this particular case is not exhausted by the field of applied technology. It is also inscribed within the processes of truth, memory, reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition that run through human rights archives in contexts of transitional justice. The very design of the Repository links it to the need for access of victims and their families, the justice system, academic research, and the general public. Its function is not solely to concentrate the documentation, but to institutionalize access conditions, use, and preservation of digital information that possesses evidential, informational, and social value. Therein lies one of its principal singularities: it turns the availability of documents on illegitimate State action and State terrorism into an archival problem of organization, mediation, and institutional responsibility.
Cruzar.uy is of particular relevance here. It is an academic and interdisciplinary project of the Universidad de la Republica, established in 2017 and initially built through the joint work of the Faculty of Information and Communication and the Faculty of Engineering, later joined by other university services and social actors. Within the framework of Cruzar, a broader set of tools was developed for the treatment, analysis, and retrieval of information contained in documental images of the recent past. These include the adaptation of LabelMe for image tagging and annotation; LUISA, for the collaborative transcription of documents and the improvement of retrieval of complex texts; AMALIA, oriented toward the general recognition of image content and the search for terms and co-occurrences through different visualizations; and LUZ, designed to locate pages containing specific terms. From this perspective, artificial intelligence and computational developments do not appear as an external complement, but rather as components integrated into the archival tasks of identifying, searching, retrieving, and interpreting digital holdings.
This technological integration acquires particular importance in relation to extensive and complex documental bodies, such as the first large collection of images incorporated into the Repository, composed mainly of the so-called Berrutti Archive, although the institutional design itself provides for the progressive incorporation of new documental groupings related to the same subject matter. The archival challenge is significant, since these are documents in digital image format, often of low quality, heterogeneous in composition, and marked by difficulties of reading, description, and identification. In that context, OCR, image processing, collaborative transcription, information extraction, and semantic retrieval expand access capabilities. Their meaning, however, does not lie in displacing archival work, but in integrating into it under criteria of validation, control, and professional mediation.
For that reason, the most fruitful contribution of the Luisa Cuesta Repository to the international archival community does not consist solely in showing that artificial intelligence can be used in human rights archives. What is truly substantive is that this integration takes place within a specialized archival service, with normative grounding, clearly defined institutional responsibilities, access procedures, professional mediation, and explicit attention to the traceability of information use. Rather than reducing the case to technical innovation, it should be read as an experience of contemporary, or post-custodial, archival science, in which digital information on human rights violations is institutionalized under a logic that articulates preservation, access, description, documental control, and public responsibility.
Seen in this way, the experience of the Luisa Cuesta Repository makes it possible to think of an archival science that goes beyond traditional custody. It is not merely a matter of preserving documents, but of creating institutional and technological conditions for their socially meaningful, legally responsible, and archivally contextualized use. Within this framework, artificial intelligence does not occupy the place of an end in itself. It becomes an integrated dimension of a specialized archival service oriented toward truth, justice, memory, and public access to the documentary evidence of the recent past.
Building a Community for Early Career Professionals
Prepared by ECaPS Committee members Gina Chacon Vargas, Laura Yturbe Mori, Lerato Tshabalala, Susannah Tindall, Oscar Zamora Flores, and Janny Sjåholm
1 April 2026
In October 2025 at the ICA Congress of Archives in Barcelona, we launched the provisional Early Career Professional Section (ECaPS). Through both a presentation and a poster, we introduced the new section and shared information about its first initiative, the Outreach Pilot Project. We made good connections and hope we sparked interest in this new space. Following the initial introduction, we would like to take this opportunity to further present the section and our vision for its first year.
Poster presentation, ICA Congress Barcelona 2025. From left to right: Gina Maria Chacón Vargas, Susannah Tindall, Laura Yturbe Mori, Janny Sjaaholm, Oscar Zamora Flores. Tuesday, 28 October 2025. Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB), Barcelona, Spain. Photo credit: Gina Pellicer.
Currently, ECaPS has the status of a provisional section. According to the Internal Regulations of ICA, members may form a provisional section for up to 8 years. After this time, they can request that the section be formally established by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Executive Board.
ECaPS aims to be a dedicated space for new professionals, students, and emerging professionals. Its main goals are to advocate for and represent this community within ICA and to strengthen their engagement and participation in the association.
The idea to create this section came from Nicola Laurent, Coordinator of the ICA New Professionals Programme (NPP), who identified the need for a structured space for students and emerging professionals beyond the programme. At the same time, the NPP 2021–2022 cohort was already working on the Outreach Pilot Project to increase awareness of ICA among students and new professionals. As both initiatives shared similar goals, the cohort took on coordinating the establishment of the section. Members of this cohort now lead the section and form the core of the Section Committee, including:
To guide our work, we defined the following objectives in our terms of reference:
Vision for the Year Ahead
In its first year, ECaPS will focus on learning the ropes as a professional section, building a community, and advancing the Outreach Pilot Project.
Community Building
Our first big challenge is to build a strong community that grows and remains active for years to come. Keep that in mind: we are focusing on how to do it and on planning and exploring meaningful ways for early-career professionals to participate, collaborate, and engage within the section to achieve our goals. These efforts aim to foster long-term commitment, professional development, and sustained contribution toward achieving our objectives.
We are specifically planning:
Outreach Pilot Project
The Outreach Pilot Project serves as ECaPS’ first official initiative and the vehicle for expanding our network. Its goal is to raise awareness of ICA’s mission, resources, and opportunities among students and early-career professionals through university talks.
We have been developing the pilot project in three stages:
Getting Involved
There are different ways to get involved with ECaPS. The first step is to join the section through your ICA profile. To do so, log in to the members-only area, access your ICA Profile section at the top of your profile, select “Edit profile”, go to the “Professional sections” section, and choose ECaPS from the drop-down list.
As a member of ECaPS, you will receive news about the section and its initiatives. If you would like to be actively involved, you can join the General Committee and help plan and organize activities. You can also volunteer for our first initiative, the Outreach Pilot Project, by giving presentations and helping raise awareness of ICA opportunities and benefits.
To get in touch with us, please contact the section at ecaps@ica.org You can access our materials here for more information:
You can also explore the ICA Outreach Posters developed in a previous initiative: New ICA Outreach Posters Now Available and the ICA Welcome Kit.
Increasing Partnerships and Connections – the work of the ARA International Section
Prepared by ARA International Committee members Isabel Lauterjung, Secretary, and Chloe Anderson-Wheatley, Chair
16 January 2026
It has been almost two years ago since the UK & Ireland Archives and Records Association (ARA) established its International Section. We would like to take this opportunity to reflect on our achievements and highlight our work connecting an international community of archivists and recordkeepers. Our founding Chair Chloe Anderson-Wheatley, Corporate Records & National Archives Manager at the Jane Cameron National Archives in the Falkland Islands, decided to approach ARA with the idea of setting up a new section: the International Section.
ARA already had an international membership category but did not have much in the way of a network for international members. There is a slew of archivists and recordkeepers who have an international background and work in the United Kingdom or Ireland, or simply those who maintain an interest in international archival practice. This is where Chloe’s idea stemmed from: based on her personal experience working in a fairly remote location, she wanted to enable British or Irish professionals working outside of the UK, to British/Irish professional standards, to feel supported and provide a space to share experiences and professional challenges and opportunities.
The aim of our International Section is to provide a forum for ARA members, especially those based abroad or working abroad to UK/Irish standards, to exchange ideas and knowledge, provide training, and create a welcoming space to connect with other professionals who may have experienced similar challenges or can provide opportunities and advice. In order to achieve this, we decided to create a training series, the first session of which took place in May 2025: In Conversation: Around the World in Oral History Practice. Professionals working in the Netherlands, United States, and the United Kingdom came together to discuss oral history practice they’d encountered throughout their career. We’re excited to plan a further training session in this style for 2026!
As part of our second AGM in July 2025, we invited Kirsten Wright, Program Manager of the Find & Connect Project at the University of Melbourne, to speak about international collaboration on trauma-informed practice. This built off the work started with the ICA, and provided a great insight into how the international community, and our members, can promote and implement this practice into their own institutions. This is a topic of interest that we would love to expand upon in further training and conversation around cross-cultural trauma-informed practice.
A further training opportunity we were excited to be involved in was organised in collaboration with ARA Northern Region (the group of the Association’s professionals in the north of England): ‘Regional Archive Bodies in the UK and Europe’ was an informative event between the Northern Region’s Chair, the German archival association (Verband deutscher Archivarinnen und Archivare) and the Catalonian association (Associació d'Arxivers-Gestors de Documents de Catalunya (AAC-GD)). It was a great insight into the opportunities of challenges of regional archival bodies in different national systems and how best to utilise the group’s reach.
Global distribution of ARA International Section membership.
To inform our future training and event planning, we created a membership survey to gauge our members’ professional background, challenges and opportunities of their jobs, and what they would need from us. At the time of the survey, we had 75 members across 5 continents, demonstrating a need for ARA members to connect at a global scale. This has increased by 20 people since this survey was conducted. The survey identified several ideas around future engagement opportunities: international exchange around the difference in archives education. Some respondents noted that in their geographic location, there was not a requirement for an official archival or recordkeeping qualification. It would be fascinating to have further conversations around how this informs professional practice in different countries. Furthermore, we would like to look into how established archival practices help inform and challenge existing standards, e.g. around Indigenous knowledge keeping and records.
2026 is shaping up to be an exciting year for us – plenty of ideas around training and international recordkeepers’ exchange that will need organising! We would also like to create a space for a more informal exchange for our membership – consistently attending hour-long training sessions and meetings isn’t feasible and is a lot to ask of our membership, so another informal space would be great to encourage conversations and exchange. Our section is distinct from the ICA in terms of our membership, which is open for all members of the UK & Ireland Archives and Records Association – you don’t need specifically international membership, but you can merely be interested in international archival affairs! We are keen to continue to collaborate and connection with internation professionals to support our sector promote archival practice.
Unlocking the African Community Archives at a Time of Crisis: Shaping Inclusive Archival Futures in Africa
Tshepho Mosweu, Villy A. Magero, Florence Dedzoe-Dzokotoe Plockey, Maureen Mnyazi Kenga and Juliet A. Erima
11 December 2025
Recognizing the importance of community archiving practices in Africa, archivists and Librarians from Botswana, Kenya, Ghana and Tunisia joined the “Catalyzing African Community Archives for Social Good” project. This collaboration spans 2024–2025 and aims to shape inclusive and sustainable futures.
A Partnership for Change This initiative brought together the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, African archivists, and international knowledge management organizations. The main goal was to shift the power dynamic in knowledge preservation. The project fostered communities of practice, empowering African partners to use their knowledge and records for social good. It also worked to decolonize and diversify preservation resources that have been centered in the Global North. The team dedicated a full year to regular meetings to develop the core training modules, culminating in a one-week-long workshop at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, to finalize all project deliverables.
Team in Illinois. Photo credit: Tshepho Mosweu.
The New Curriculum for Community Archiving
The key outcome of this collaboration is a comprehensive curriculum or training manual for community archives. It is designed as a simple, yet thorough, guide for training and development in the area of Community Archiving.
The developed modules include:
All project materials, including the modules, are now publicly available. You can read more about the project at <https://cacasg.library.illinois.edu/about/> and explore the training modules directly here: <https://cacasg.library.illinois.edu/modules/>.
A Call for Local Ownership and Context
African archivists in the project issue a strong call to action for the Global South to remember the lost narratives in conversation, behavior, and character of their communities. Instead of relying on external resources to tell their stories as is often the case, the project is founded on the belief that Africans can and should develop resources that are specifically applicable to their own environment and people. This local focus is a highlight of the curriculum, with most examples drawn directly from the African context, such as the Speru dance from the Basubiya community in Botswana, or Kalenjin artifacts from Kenya.
With the Catalyzing African Community Archives for Social Good project, we hope to reignite a long-needed conversation in the digital preservation of Community Archives and Heritage in Africa. The work ensures that future generations will be able to connect their culture and heritage to a tangible source, helping them understand why certain traditions and practices exist depicting the original nuances. These training modules will also complement existing preservation efforts, leveraging tools like the Digital Preservation Coalition toolkit. This project plays a critical role in shaping the evolving concepts, practices, and technologies of archival work within an African context. We encourage institutions and local communities across Africa to utilize these materials for the wider community good.
The researchers are grateful for the support of funding of The Catalyzing African Community Archives for Social Good project from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Chancellor’s Call to Action Research Program, which advances academic and community-based research addressing systemic inequities and social injustices. Further gratitude goes to the project coordinators and the team from the University of Illinois led by Prof. Chris Prom.
