The 61st Annual Conference of the United Nations Department of Information and NGOs will take place this year in Paris at UNESCO from the 3rd to the 5th September on the topic of ‘Reaffirming Human Rights for all: the Universal Declaration at 60 years’. 2,000 representatives of NGOs from 90 countries are expected. A workshop entitled The Right to Know and the Right to Truth: How archival documents can be used to combat impunity will be dedicated to the presentation of the new report by Antonio Gonzalez Quintana, Archival Policy for the Defense of Human Rights, and his recommendations. This study, produced for the ICA, reconsiders and updates the UNESCO/ICA report of 1995 on the archives of the security services of former repressive regimes, by including other archival sources, such as those of Human Rights NGOs and Truth Commissions. The workshop aims to make participants aware of the importance of archives in the defense of human rights.

For more information see http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/conference/workshops.shtml

Perrine Canavaggio