Transitional justice and archives

In the current practice of, and debates on, transitional justice, archives and human rights documentation are seen as a prerequisite for the quest for justice, truth and reconciliation. Transitional justice mechanisms such as (international) trials, truth and reconciliation commissions (TRCs), vetting and reparation initiatives use such human rights documentation as well as the archives of repressive regimes, civil society organizations and private actors. Simultaneously, they produce new records and reconfigure the existing ones through their institutional processes, creating ever-growing transitional justice documentation and archives. However, a conceptual and critical debate on their use is only in its infancy. The chapter therefore rethinks archives and archivists as actors in their own right and proposes new conceptual and methodological pathways to better understand the role of archives in transitional contexts. In doing so, the authors map out the manifold and at times troubling relationship between archives and transitional justice.