Atrocity’s Archives: The Role of Archives in Transitional Justice

This workshop brought into conversation academics from Europe and archive professionals from a range of transition countries, globally, in order to discuss relevant differences and commonalities in their respective political and social contexts and to exchange on the struggle to advance and promote the role of archives in transitional justice processes. There is a pressing need to discuss these issues because at present, we know little about how different types of archives such as court archives, truth and reconciliation archives, survivor testimony archives, (secret) police or state archives impact on the different stages in a transitional justice process or on proclaimed goals such as reconciliation, forgiveness or healing. This guidance note is a first step to kick-start the conversation about the role of archives in transitional justice. The project was carried out in collaboration with swisspeace and the Stasi Records Archive. It was generously funded by the UK based Economic and Social Research Council’s Impact Acceleration Account at the University of Oxford and the Leverhulme Trust Fund.