The University of Connecticut’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center and Human Rights Institute is hosting a symposium entitled “Human Rights Archives and Documentation: Transforming Ideas into Practice,” March 3–4, 2008. Cosponsored by CRL’s Global Resources Network and Columbia University’s Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research, the conference will bring together archivists, librarians, and human rights scholars together to address specific needs and unique issues in human rights documentation and to create strategies for the future.

The symposium is a follow-on to the GRN-sponsored conference at Columbia University in October 2007 entitled “Human Rights Archives and Documentation: Meeting the Needs of Research, Teaching, Advocacy, and Justice,” and will pick up on the questions and recommendations made by the participants of the working group sessions at that event. The outcomes of the Columbia conference formed the foundation for the proposed Global Resources Network Human Rights Archives and Documentation Program.

The keynote address for the March symposium will be the Honorable Patricia Wald, who served on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The second day of the program will consist of working group sessions to share information and address issues specific to human rights documentation. The event is free and open to anyone working with or interested in human rights collections.