Amnesty International USA Archives Project

Human rights activists with materials to deposit in the AIUSA Archives can download the Archives Brochure to get started.

Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) Archives, a comprehensive collection of materials documenting the founding, activity, and growth of AIUSA from the early 1960's through today, has moved from University of Colorado-Boulder's Human Rights Initiative (HRI) to Columbia University's new Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research (CHRDR) at Butler Library in New York City, with the collections of the other HRI human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs.) among them, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First.

The AIUSA Archives Advisory Committee (AAAC) tasked with guiding and promoting the AIUSA Archives Project, is a small group of volunteer leaders, with a board and a staff liaison. AIUSA Archives Advisory Committee (AAAC) has just appointed four new members. AAAC members serve for three years, to learn more about the committee's work more »

AIUSA activists are invited to donate materials to the archives, see details (In PDF) and to fill in and submit a detailed questionnaire (In PDF) about Amnesty International, AIUSA, and human rights work, programs, events, and policies. These questionnaires should be returned to Ellen V. Moore by mail or email, and may be followed up with video-taped interviews by Columbia University Oral History graduate students.

Michael Ryan (with the bow tie) is the new Director of the Rare Books and Manuscripts at Columbia University's Butler Library, NYC. Csaba Szilagyi is the curator for the Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research at Butler Library - Columbia U, and Catherine Carson is the new archivist for CHRDR who is currently working on the AIUSA Archives, Ellen Moore, AIUSA staff liaison with Columbia University overseeing the AIUSA Archives Program.

AIUSA Archives -- A Brief History:

In 1992, Bruce Montgomery, faculty director of the archives at University of Colorado, approached AIUSA's Urgent Action Program staff in Colorado with the idea of beginning a substantial and comprehensive human rights collection; he called it the Human Rights Initiative. The AIUSA board okayed the AIUSA Archives Project; board members, local group members and activists, the International Secretariat, and AIUSA staff discussed the benefits of archiving, and collecting materials began in 1994. On the strength of HRI containing the AIUSA Archives, many small and large human rights NGOs and individuals deposited their materials at HRI at the University of Colorado-Boulder, creating the world's pre-eminent human rights archives. After an AAAC meeting in 1999 at CU-B, the AAAC learned that University of Colorado officials had determined that HRI no longer fit within the Universitiy's priorities or resources and therefore had to be relocated to a new institutional home. As a result, the major affiliated organizations of HRI began searching for a new university which would serve to fulfill the original vision and mission of HRI to establish an international documentation center to preserve and make digitally accessible the global legacy of the human rights movement. Columbia University was selected after extensive communication with over a dozen possible institutions.

What's in the AIUSA Archives?

The AIUSA archives contains materials documenting the start of our AI section in New York City in the early 60's, as well as materials from the AIUSA New York headquarters and the Washington DC lobby office; from all the regional offices; and from all the programs and departments of AIUSA. The collection contains posters, banners, T-shirts, photographs, videos, DVDs, and more than 30 years of newspaper clippings mentioning Amnesty International and human rights. The collection includes country reports, mission reports, and oral histories. Many local and campus chapters and individual activists, especially country coordination specialists and members of steering committees and task forces, have deposited records of their activities as part of the AIUSA Archives or as associated collections (see below).

How To Access AIUSA Human Rights Materials:

The AIUSA Archives Advisory Committee, made up of longtime AIUSA members and staff with special archives expertise and interest, vets each request made to use the AIUSA Archives. Materials in the archives have differential accessibility determined by the International Secretariat, the depositor/donor, and rules and regulations of the Human Rights Initiative. All aspects of archives access will be reviewed during the first years of the AIUSA Archives re-location to Columbia University. Many items in the archives will be digitized and become available on-line with robust indexing and potent search capabilities.

How To Deposit AIUSA Human Rights Materials:

Since the Human Rights Initiative is in transition, an AIUSA human rights activist should wait to send archival materials to the Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research until late 2006, when Columbia University has the remodelled space to accommodate more AIUSA materials. If it becomes impossible to hold materials until late 2006, please contact Ellen Moore at 303.258.7886 to make temporary deposit arrangements. The AIUSA Archives contains many written, audio, and video histories of activists. If you'd like your experience and opinions to be a part of the AIUSA Archives, please download the AIUSA Archives Questionnaire (In PDF), and mail, email, or fax it to Ellen V. Moore (contact information below).

What to Save for Deposit in the AIUSA Archives.

Individual activists, AI groups, and AIUSA board members, volunteer leaders, and staff should seek to retain materials that document their major operations, activities, and policy decisions. These might include, for example, meeting minutes, organizational by-laws, policy memorandums, documents detailing major decisions, investigative reports and publications, correspondence, development/donor materials, press clippings, promotional materials: brochures, fliers, and case materials, photographs and videotape, posters and t-shirts, documents regarding internal deliberations and debates, interactions and networking with other domestic and international organizations.

What is the Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research (CHRDR) at Columbia University's Butler Library?

By Spring of 2006, the CHRDR will feature Amnesty International USA, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, and Human Rights First as its cornerstone human rights collections, a professional archiving staff, twice yearly meetings of depositor representatives as part of a center-wide planning process, as well as unspecified human rights events, activities, fora, and institutes. The AIUSA Archives Advisory Committee will be fully involved in contributing to center planning and functioning as well as in collection and fund-raising efforts that support and enhance the AIUSA Archives.

Members of the AIUSA Archives Advisory Committee

Committee Chair: Bill Harris

Thelma Boeder
Abraham J. Bonowitz
Ann Clark
Mary Gray
Alexandra Lee
Anna Uremovich
Steve Marquardt
Wendy Wong

Board Liaison: Tram Nguyen

Consultants:
Angela Thieman Dino

former Staff Liaison:
Ellen Moore
P.O. Box 1270
Nederland, CO 80466-1270
PH: 303-258.1170
FAX: 303-258-7881
evmmoore@gmail.com