The Program Council of the Repository of Documentation Relating to Disappearances in Mexico (RDDM) is pleased to announce the appointment of an international Advisory Committee. The 26-member committee, composed of representatives of families of the disappeared, human rights experts, journalists, scholars, and archival specialists will provide guidance and expertise to the RDDM in its initial stages of development.

The RDDM is a collaborative initiative that seeks to gather and safeguard human rights documentation on the disappearances of people in Mexico since the beginning of the Drug War in 2006. The core task of the project in its initial stages is to develop an online system to gather and make accessible documentation to make the various dimensions of the crisis visible and ensure the long-term preservation, integrity, and accessibility of critical documentation for purposes of truth, justice, and historical memory.

Members of the Advisory Committee were nominated by the RDDM partner institutions--the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), El Colegio de México, the Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, and the Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México. The roster of participants includes Mexico-based experts from academia, government, and intergovernmental organizations, Mexico-based NGOs, international experts, and journalists from Mexico. Representatives recommended by CRL are Kate Doyle (National Security Archive), Laura Salas (WITNESS), Marcela Turati (Quinto Elemento), Javier Yankelevich (Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de Personas), and Pamela Graham, Director of the Center for Human Rights Documentation & Research at Columbia University Libraries and member of CRL's International Collections and Content Group.

Critically, members of the Advisory Committee include representatives of the family collectives (colectivos) which were selected in collaboration with el Centro de Colaboración Cívica (CCC), a civil society organization in Mexico that serves as a coordinating body for the national umbrella organization Movimiento por Nuestros Desaparicidos en México.

Advisory Committee member Santiago Corcuera, founding director of Ibero's human rights center and a representative on the Citizen’s Council of the Sistema Nacional de Búsqueda, notes: “The multidisciplinary integration of the advisory committee will strengthen the configuration of the Repository in its objective to gather facts and information, which will enable researchers and policy makers to implement solutions to the humanitarian crisis regarding the more than 80,000 officially recognized disappeared persons in Mexico. The participation of family members of victims as well as academics and NGO experts is its main strength and will surely be very beneficial for the achievement of the goals of the project.”

For the complete list of Advisory Committee Members and further details, view the complete Press Release (en español and English).

RDDM gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.