Records and archives containing information relating to grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law represent a fundamental source for, and can become trustworthy documentary evidence within, Dealing with the Past (DWP) processes including truth commissions, criminal tribunals, reparation programs, vetting processes and outreach projects. Those intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) working in the fields of human rights and peace and security are themselves important observers and actors in DWP processes and hence their records and archives are highly relevant to DWP initiatives. Such organizations should therefore be transparent and be able to facilitate DWP processes by granting access to their records. Given the International Council on Archives’ definition of “access” as relating to “… the availability of records for consultation as a result both of legal authorization and the existence of finding aids”, and the experience of swisspeace in advising DWP initiatives on collecting evidence and improving records management capacity, swisspeace together with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs developed a roadmap which centres on the development of an “archives accessibility maturity model”. This tool will not only improve hands-on access in practice, but will ultimately improve knowledge about the multi-layered complexity of archives’ accessibility, strengthening the capacity of IGOs, INGOs and DWP initiatives to design and implement their access regulations, and thereby improving DWP initiatives’ ability to make successful access requests.
{"title":"Are human rights archives accessible? Challenges and possible solutions to improve access for Dealing with the Past initiatives","authors":"Romain Ledauphin, C. Josi, Rahel Siegrist","doi":"10.3828/comma.2020.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/comma.2020.9","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Records and archives containing information relating to grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law represent a fundamental source for, and can become trustworthy documentary evidence within, Dealing with the Past (DWP) processes including truth commissions, criminal tribunals, reparation programs, vetting processes and outreach projects. Those intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) working in the fields of human rights and peace and security are themselves important observers and actors in DWP processes and hence their records and archives are highly relevant to DWP initiatives. Such organizations should therefore be transparent and be able to facilitate DWP processes by granting access to their records. Given the International Council on Archives’ definition of “access” as relating to “… the availability of records for consultation as a result both of legal authorization and the existence of finding aids”, and the experience of swisspeace in advising DWP initiatives on collecting evidence and improving records management capacity, swisspeace together with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs developed a roadmap which centres on the development of an “archives accessibility maturity model”. This tool will not only improve hands-on access in practice, but will ultimately improve knowledge about the multi-layered complexity of archives’ accessibility, strengthening the capacity of IGOs, INGOs and DWP initiatives to design and implement their access regulations, and thereby improving DWP initiatives’ ability to make successful access requests.","PeriodicalId":36616,"journal":{"name":"Comma","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49416682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
El presente artículo tratará de aproximarse a las diversas formas de gestión de la información y su administración y a la capacidad de los Estados para controlar y vigilar el cumplimiento del respeto a la privacidad de las personas por parte de las empresas, tanto en sus propios negocios, como en su calidad de suministradoras de servicios en apoyo a la administración pública. Profundizaremos especialmente en cómo se utiliza la información de las personas y en qué medida la inexistencia de sistemas nacionales de archivos o la ausencia de leyes de protección de datos personales pueden menoscabar el derecho a la protección de las personas contra injerencias arbitrarias en su vida privada, su familia, su domicilio o su correspondencia, o contra ataques a su honra o a su reputación, definido en el artículo 12 de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos.
{"title":"El derecho a la privacidad y las empresas de servicios de gestión documental","authors":"Lizbeth Barrientos","doi":"10.3828/comma.2020.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/comma.2020.7","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000El presente artículo tratará de aproximarse a las diversas formas de gestión de la información y su administración y a la capacidad de los Estados para controlar y vigilar el cumplimiento del respeto a la privacidad de las personas por parte de las empresas, tanto en sus propios negocios, como en su calidad de suministradoras de servicios en apoyo a la administración pública. Profundizaremos especialmente en cómo se utiliza la información de las personas y en qué medida la inexistencia de sistemas nacionales de archivos o la ausencia de leyes de protección de datos personales pueden menoscabar el derecho a la protección de las personas contra injerencias arbitrarias en su vida privada, su familia, su domicilio o su correspondencia, o contra ataques a su honra o a su reputación, definido en el artículo 12 de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos.","PeriodicalId":36616,"journal":{"name":"Comma","volume":"25 22","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41260781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Following the institutionalization of the Policy on the Public Disclosure of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Information in 2008, the NATO Archives tasked itself to regularly exhibit publicly disclosed NATO documents, video, audio, photos, publications and artifacts to promote the increasing accessibility of its collection. The success of these exhibitions, which were all initially displayed at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, led not only to a boost in the visibility of the NATO Archives within the organization, but also resulted in their expansion as part of the promotional activities of the Alliance itself, leading up to its 70th anniversary celebrations in 2019. This paper presents an overview of the outreach activities of the NATO Archives, discussing its origins and evolution in an institutional context, highlighting its role in communicating the mission of the NATO Archives and, by extension, of NATO itself. While this case study illuminates a specific experience that is heavily determined by the political and security demands of its particular environment, the resulting narrative is intended to be broadly applicable and perhaps even inspirational for archivists who recognize similar challenges at their respective international organizations.
{"title":"Promoting the archives of the Alliance: a case study of outreach at the NATO Archives*","authors":"Nicholas Nguyen","doi":"10.3828/comma.2019.2.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/comma.2019.2.8","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Following the institutionalization of the Policy on the Public Disclosure of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Information in 2008, the NATO Archives tasked itself to regularly exhibit publicly disclosed NATO documents, video, audio, photos, publications and artifacts to promote the increasing accessibility of its collection. The success of these exhibitions, which were all initially displayed at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, led not only to a boost in the visibility of the NATO Archives within the organization, but also resulted in their expansion as part of the promotional activities of the Alliance itself, leading up to its 70th anniversary celebrations in 2019. This paper presents an overview of the outreach activities of the NATO Archives, discussing its origins and evolution in an institutional context, highlighting its role in communicating the mission of the NATO Archives and, by extension, of NATO itself. While this case study illuminates a specific experience that is heavily determined by the political and security demands of its particular environment, the resulting narrative is intended to be broadly applicable and perhaps even inspirational for archivists who recognize similar challenges at their respective international organizations.","PeriodicalId":36616,"journal":{"name":"Comma","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43415214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Desde la última década del siglo XX, los informes de los relatores de las Naciones Unidas como Joinet, Orentlicher o Pablo de Greiff han tomado conciencia del papel de los archivos en el esclarecimiento de la verdad, la impartición de la justicia, la reparación a las víctimas y las garantías de no repetición en el caso de las violaciones de derechos humanos. Sin embargo, los derechos humanos no solo se violan en guerras y regímenes dictatoriales. Las empresas, especialmente las transnacionales, son cada vez más las protagonistas de casos flagrantes de violaciones de derechos humanos que, amparándose en el respeto a la propiedad privada y empresarial, y con la dificultad que supone su actuación en diferentes puntos del planeta, se cometen con total impunidad. Las Naciones Unidas, conscientes de ello, emitieron los Principios Rectores sobre las Empresas y los Derechos Humanos, conocido como Informe Ruggie, y está trabajando en la actualidad en un Tratado Vinculante para luchar contra esta lacra. Para asombro de la profesión, ninguno de estos documentos está contemplando el valor que el acceso a los archivos puede aportar para la aplicación de estos principios, corriendo el riesgo de quedarse en una simple declaración de intenciones. A través de este artículo, se analizarán en qué puntos, tanto de los Principios como del Tratado, el acceso a los documentos de archivo es esencial para llevar a cabo una verdadera política para proteger, respetar y reparar a las víctimas de estos abusos.
从二十世纪最后十年,联合国作为报告员的报告儒瓦内Orentlicher或Pablo de Greiff已经认识文件的作用,以便澄清真相,传递司法,赔偿受害者和不重复的保证在人权受到侵犯的情况。然而，人权不仅在战争和独裁政权中受到侵犯。公司，特别是跨国公司，越来越多地成为公然侵犯人权案件的主角，这些案件以尊重私人和公司财产为借口，在世界不同地区很难采取行动，完全不受惩罚。联合国认识到这一点，发布了《企业与人权指导原则》，即《鲁吉报告》，目前正在制定一项具有约束力的条约，以打击这一祸害。令业界感到惊讶的是，这些文件中没有一份考虑到查阅档案对这些原则的应用可能带来的价值，冒着仅仅是一份意图声明的风险。本文分析了《原则》和《条约》在哪些方面对执行一项保护、尊重和赔偿这些虐待行为受害者的真正政策至关重要。
{"title":"El acceso a los archivos como antídoto a los abusos empresariales","authors":"B. Palacios","doi":"10.3828/comma.2020.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/comma.2020.8","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Desde la última década del siglo XX, los informes de los relatores de las Naciones Unidas como Joinet, Orentlicher o Pablo de Greiff han tomado conciencia del papel de los archivos en el esclarecimiento de la verdad, la impartición de la justicia, la reparación a las víctimas y las garantías de no repetición en el caso de las violaciones de derechos humanos. Sin embargo, los derechos humanos no solo se violan en guerras y regímenes dictatoriales. Las empresas, especialmente las transnacionales, son cada vez más las protagonistas de casos flagrantes de violaciones de derechos humanos que, amparándose en el respeto a la propiedad privada y empresarial, y con la dificultad que supone su actuación en diferentes puntos del planeta, se cometen con total impunidad. Las Naciones Unidas, conscientes de ello, emitieron los Principios Rectores sobre las Empresas y los Derechos Humanos, conocido como Informe Ruggie, y está trabajando en la actualidad en un Tratado Vinculante para luchar contra esta lacra. Para asombro de la profesión, ninguno de estos documentos está contemplando el valor que el acceso a los archivos puede aportar para la aplicación de estos principios, corriendo el riesgo de quedarse en una simple declaración de intenciones. A través de este artículo, se analizarán en qué puntos, tanto de los Principios como del Tratado, el acceso a los documentos de archivo es esencial para llevar a cabo una verdadera política para proteger, respetar y reparar a las víctimas de estos abusos.","PeriodicalId":36616,"journal":{"name":"Comma","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43898524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
On 10 December 1948 the Third General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: a universal declaration, not a United Nations declaration. The Preamble of the Declaration begins by proclaiming that “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”. As archivists know, the nexus between human rights and archives is strong and complex, because records are essential both to protecting these rights and to obtaining recourse when these rights are violated. This essay illuminates some of the relationships of records to rights, looking at each of the 30 Articles in turn.
{"title":"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: an archival commentary*","authors":"T. Peterson","doi":"10.3828/comma.2020.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/comma.2020.4","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000On 10 December 1948 the Third General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: a universal declaration, not a United Nations declaration. The Preamble of the Declaration begins by proclaiming that “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”. As archivists know, the nexus between human rights and archives is strong and complex, because records are essential both to protecting these rights and to obtaining recourse when these rights are violated. This essay illuminates some of the relationships of records to rights, looking at each of the 30 Articles in turn.","PeriodicalId":36616,"journal":{"name":"Comma","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47164992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As Black Sexual Economies: Race and Sex in a Culture of Capital capaciously acknowledges, Black sexuality studies is an established and proliferating inter-and transdisciplinary intellectual focus. The framework is central to the understanding that Black sexuality has historically been constructed, in an American context, as pathological and as a site of sexual panic. This insight has influenced and evolved traditional disciplines, fields, and departments, including Black studies. Where this anthology distinguishes itself is through its focus on the inextricable link between Black sexuality and the political and socioeconomic forces that regulate and discipline it. More specifically, the collection considers “the enduring link between capitalism and market and imagination and culture in its theories of black sexualities in ways that traditional scholarship on sexuality and race have refused or sublimated for the work of politics” (2–3). Some of the anthology’s essays adhere to labor and market analysis of Black sexualities in and under advanced capitalism more explicitly than others. Regardless of how clearly the essays coalesce around a shared conceptual preoccupation, all the topics explored are indeed challenging to status-quo politics. This is difficult work, which is one of the reasons why a Black feminist praxis of collaboration is so necessary. The collection, which identifies itself as a “critical race feminist project,” grew from workshops and a culminating 2013 conference organized by the Black Sexual Economies (BSE) Collective, a working group of eight scholars from seven US research institutions in the fields of law; African American and African diaspora studies; English; women’s, gender, and sexuality studies; film and media studies; history; American Studies; and the performing arts (1). These scholars—who met regularly on the Washington University campus for four years (from 2010 to 2013)—include project organizer and co-convener Adrienne D. Davis; co-convener Mireille MillerYoung; Marlon Bailey; Matt Richardson; Jeffrey McCune; Felice Blake; Xavier Livermon; and L.H. Stallings. The BSE Collective’s intention was to “serve as an incubator for the crafting of new paradigms for thinking about race, gender, sexuality, and class and the use of innovative interdisciplinary methodologies” (ix). The resulting collection
正如《黑人性经济：资本文化中的种族与性》（Black Sexual Economics:Race and Sex in a Culture of Capital）所充分承认的那样，黑人性研究是一个既定的、正在扩散的跨学科和跨学科的学术焦点。该框架是理解黑人性行为在美国历史上被构建为病态和性恐慌场所的核心。这种见解影响并发展了传统学科、领域和部门，包括黑人研究。这本选集的与众不同之处在于，它关注黑人性行为与规范和约束黑人性行为的政治和社会经济力量之间不可分割的联系。更具体地说，该系列考虑到“资本主义与市场、想象力与文化之间的持久联系，其黑人性取向理论是传统的性取向和种族学术拒绝或升华为政治工作的方式”（2-3）。该选集的一些文章比其他文章更明确地坚持了对先进资本主义及其下黑人性取向的劳动力和市场分析。不管这些文章围绕着一个共同的概念焦点结合得多么清晰，所探讨的所有主题都确实对现状政治构成了挑战。这是一项艰巨的工作，这也是为什么黑人女权主义合作实践如此必要的原因之一。该系列自称为“批判性种族女权主义项目”，源于黑人性经济集体组织的研讨会和2013年的一次会议，该集体是一个由来自美国七个法律研究机构的八名学者组成的工作组；非裔美国人和非洲侨民研究；英语妇女、性别和性研究；电影和媒体研究；历史美国研究；以及表演艺术（1）。这些学者在华盛顿大学校园定期会面四年（从2010年到2013年），其中包括项目组织者和联合召集人Adrienne D.Davis；联合召集人Mireille MillerYoung；Marlon Bailey；马特·理查森；Jeffrey McCune；Felice Blake；泽维尔·利弗蒙；和L.H.史泰林斯。BSE集体的意图是“作为一个孵化器，为思考种族、性别、性和阶级以及使用创新的跨学科方法创造新的范式”（ix）。生成的集合
{"title":"Book Reviews","authors":"April Miller, D. Schlenker","doi":"10.3828/comma.2019.2.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/comma.2019.2.10","url":null,"abstract":"As Black Sexual Economies: Race and Sex in a Culture of Capital capaciously acknowledges, Black sexuality studies is an established and proliferating inter-and transdisciplinary intellectual focus. The framework is central to the understanding that Black sexuality has historically been constructed, in an American context, as pathological and as a site of sexual panic. This insight has influenced and evolved traditional disciplines, fields, and departments, including Black studies. Where this anthology distinguishes itself is through its focus on the inextricable link between Black sexuality and the political and socioeconomic forces that regulate and discipline it. More specifically, the collection considers “the enduring link between capitalism and market and imagination and culture in its theories of black sexualities in ways that traditional scholarship on sexuality and race have refused or sublimated for the work of politics” (2–3). Some of the anthology’s essays adhere to labor and market analysis of Black sexualities in and under advanced capitalism more explicitly than others. Regardless of how clearly the essays coalesce around a shared conceptual preoccupation, all the topics explored are indeed challenging to status-quo politics. This is difficult work, which is one of the reasons why a Black feminist praxis of collaboration is so necessary. The collection, which identifies itself as a “critical race feminist project,” grew from workshops and a culminating 2013 conference organized by the Black Sexual Economies (BSE) Collective, a working group of eight scholars from seven US research institutions in the fields of law; African American and African diaspora studies; English; women’s, gender, and sexuality studies; film and media studies; history; American Studies; and the performing arts (1). These scholars—who met regularly on the Washington University campus for four years (from 2010 to 2013)—include project organizer and co-convener Adrienne D. Davis; co-convener Mireille MillerYoung; Marlon Bailey; Matt Richardson; Jeffrey McCune; Felice Blake; Xavier Livermon; and L.H. Stallings. The BSE Collective’s intention was to “serve as an incubator for the crafting of new paradigms for thinking about race, gender, sexuality, and class and the use of innovative interdisciplinary methodologies” (ix). The resulting collection","PeriodicalId":36616,"journal":{"name":"Comma","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42058887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Over the years, internationally-minded archivists have had to consider the possibility of taking custody of archives from another country because the archives are at risk in their country of origin. The risks may take many forms, but archives in war-zones and other disaster areas, and archives at environmental risk (including risks of climate change) provide striking examples. The removal of archives from one country to another is always likely to be controversial, however, and even well-intentioned attempts at “archival rescue” in the past have been strongly criticized. It has been clear for a long time that international standards are needed. The “Guiding Principles for Safe Havens’” for Archives at Risk are a set of principles providing guidance on archival and ethical factors to be taken into account when planning the transfer of analogue or digital archives (or copies) to another institution for safekeeping. The principles have been drawn up by a group of experts in meetings held in Berne, Amsterdam, Geneva, and virtually, over the past four years, and have been endorsed and approved by various international organizations, including several ICA Sections. Past bilateral agreements between sending institutions and hosting institutions governing “safe haven” solutions have often failed to address fundamental questions, such as data protection, access, succession solutions, obligations to return or the often asymmetrical relationship between the sending institution and the hosting institution. The need for new and definitive principles is outlined in this essay, and the “Guiding Principles” themselves are then described, explained and justified.
{"title":"Safe havens for archives at risk: a new international initiative","authors":"D. Sutton","doi":"10.3828/comma.2020.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/comma.2020.5","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Over the years, internationally-minded archivists have had to consider the possibility of taking custody of archives from another country because the archives are at risk in their country of origin. The risks may take many forms, but archives in war-zones and other disaster areas, and archives at environmental risk (including risks of climate change) provide striking examples. The removal of archives from one country to another is always likely to be controversial, however, and even well-intentioned attempts at “archival rescue” in the past have been strongly criticized. It has been clear for a long time that international standards are needed. The “Guiding Principles for Safe Havens’” for Archives at Risk are a set of principles providing guidance on archival and ethical factors to be taken into account when planning the transfer of analogue or digital archives (or copies) to another institution for safekeeping. The principles have been drawn up by a group of experts in meetings held in Berne, Amsterdam, Geneva, and virtually, over the past four years, and have been endorsed and approved by various international organizations, including several ICA Sections. Past bilateral agreements between sending institutions and hosting institutions governing “safe haven” solutions have often failed to address fundamental questions, such as data protection, access, succession solutions, obligations to return or the often asymmetrical relationship between the sending institution and the hosting institution. The need for new and definitive principles is outlined in this essay, and the “Guiding Principles” themselves are then described, explained and justified.","PeriodicalId":36616,"journal":{"name":"Comma","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48500937","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Many people who grew up in care have gaps in their childhood memories and unanswered questions about their early lives. In the absence of family photos and stories they turn to records held by the local authorities and charities that looked after them. Accessing these records is a practically and emotionally challenging process. Response times are often long and the records received are redacted because they include confidential information about “third parties’” who are often family and carers. The language and ideas contained reflect the prejudices and assumptions of previous times. Some files are extremely long and confusing, whereas others only have a few pages to cover a whole childhood. Records may have been lost or destroyed altogether. Very few services are available to support people through the experience. MIRRA: Memory-Identity-Rights in Records-Access is a participatory action research project carried out at the Department of Information Studies at University College London since 2017 that explores these issues. It considered how child social care records have been created, kept and used in public and voluntary organizations in England from 1970 to the present. The research is co-produced with care leavers in partnership with The Care Leavers’ Association and reflects on how what it is recorded about a childhood can affect the individual concerned throughout their life. This article republishes edited blog posts produced during the research project. The original blogs in full are available at https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/mirra/.
{"title":"Project MIRRA: Memory - Identity - Rights in Records - Access","authors":"E. Shepherd, V. Hoyle, Elizabeth Lomas","doi":"10.3828/comma.2020.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/comma.2020.6","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Many people who grew up in care have gaps in their childhood memories and unanswered questions about their early lives. In the absence of family photos and stories they turn to records held by the local authorities and charities that looked after them. Accessing these records is a practically and emotionally challenging process. Response times are often long and the records received are redacted because they include confidential information about “third parties’” who are often family and carers. The language and ideas contained reflect the prejudices and assumptions of previous times. Some files are extremely long and confusing, whereas others only have a few pages to cover a whole childhood. Records may have been lost or destroyed altogether. Very few services are available to support people through the experience. MIRRA: Memory-Identity-Rights in Records-Access is a participatory action research project carried out at the Department of Information Studies at University College London since 2017 that explores these issues. It considered how child social care records have been created, kept and used in public and voluntary organizations in England from 1970 to the present. The research is co-produced with care leavers in partnership with The Care Leavers’ Association and reflects on how what it is recorded about a childhood can affect the individual concerned throughout their life. This article republishes edited blog posts produced during the research project. The original blogs in full are available at https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/mirra/.\u0000","PeriodicalId":36616,"journal":{"name":"Comma","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47302135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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