The Center for Human Rights Documentation & Research
The Center for Human Rights Documentation & Research (CHRDR) supports the community of teachers, students, researchers, and law and social justice advocates working in the multidisciplinary sphere of human rights.
The Center pursues three programmatic directions: building research collections, supporting and engaging in human rights education efforts, and developing events and collaborations related to human rights documentation and research. The Center was established in 2005 and is based in the Columbia University Libraries and Information Services.
Archival Collections
Amnesty International USA
Amnesty International (AI), founded in 1961, is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights.
Center for Economic and Social Rights
The Center for Economic and Social Rights was established in 1993 by Roger Normand, Sarah Zaidi, and Chris Jochnick. In 1991, Normand, Zaidi and Jochnick were members of a Harvard interdisciplinary research team that traveled to Iraq to document and respond to the country’s humanitarian crisis caused by the Gulf War and sanctions placed upon the country. The team focused on issues related to malnutrition, sanitation, childhood mortality and morbidity, and health.
Center for the Study of Human Rights (Columbia University)
Founded at Columbia University in 1978, the Center for the Study of Human Rights is one of the oldest university human rights programs in the United States. The Center advances the understanding of human rights issues through its goals of "providing excellent human rights education to Columbia students, fostering innovative interdisciplinary academic research, and offering its expertise in capacity building to human rights leaders, organizations, and universities around the world."
Committee of Concerned Scientists
The Committee of Concerned Scientists (CCS) is a human rights organization composed of scientists, engineers, and scholars who promote academic and personal freedom for their colleagues worldwide. The Committee supports the rights of scientists to collaborate on research and share data, travel to conferences and meetings, and emigrate if they choose. More broadly, CCS advocates human treatment of all individuals and government compliance with human rights agreements.
Committee for Health in Southern Africa
The Committee for Health in Southern Africa (CHISA) was a not-for-profit North American human rights organization consisting of volunteers--most of them health professionals--who recognized the urgent need for better health care, education, facilities, and medical training in the nations of Southern Africa.
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) was founded at a time when violence against journalists was escalating, particularly in Latin America. The records of the CPJ document the organization's work in promoting press freedom around the world and include clippings, correspondence, minutes, planning materials, publications, and research materials.
Gay J. McDougall South Africa and Namibia Papers
The Gay J. McDougall Papers document the South African anti-apartheid movement in the 1960s through the 1990s. Born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1947, Gay J. McDougall is a lawyer and activist who worked to end apartheid in both South Africa and Namibia.
Human Rights Watch Archive
In 1978, under the direction of founder and former chair Robert L. Bernstein, Human Rights Watch (HRW) was established as Helsinki Watch (HW). HW’s mission was to monitor the compliance of the former Soviet Union and the other communist bloc countries with the human rights provisions of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act. The material in the Helsinki Watch files is substantive in dissidents and opposition movements especially in the former Soviet Union and its satellites.
Africa Watch Records (1977-1997): 76.25 linear feet
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Americas Watch Records (1966-1994): 96 linear feet
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Asia Watch Records (1978-1997): 152.5 linear feet
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Helsinki Watch Records (1952-2003): 271 linear feet
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Middle East and North Africa Division (1978-1997): 36.25 linear feet
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University Seminar on Human Rights (Columbia University)
The collection consists of the records of university seminars in various fields for each academic year since their establishment. A typical file will include minutes of the meetings, but there may also be supporting documentation such as correspondence, reports, or copies of papers presented at a meeting.
Other Selected Human Rights Archives at Columbia
Telford Taylor Papers (1908-1998)
The Telford Taylor Papers collect the work of Telford Taylor as a lawyer, legal scholar, writer, and historian. The documents include Taylor's work in Nuremberg with the International and Nuremberg Military Tribunals, his work within departments created by the New Deal, some of his legal case files (particularly on civil liberties cases), and other professional interests that Taylor had.
Raphael Lemkin papers, 1931-1947
The Raphael Lemkin Collection holds some of the documents related to lawyer and scholar Raphael Lemkin's research and writing on the topics of war crimes and genocide. Some of the documents Lemkin collected include the official regulations published by the Nazi government concerning its governance over occupied territories.
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility records, 1966-2011
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a coalition of predominantly faith based institutions that are committed to socially responsible investing. The strength of the records lies in their documentation of the ICCR’s programs, its work on individual issues, and its work with individual corporations and the U.S. Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC).
We are the official repository for the archives of major human rights organizations such as Amnesty International USA, the Physicians for Human Rights, Human Rights First, and Human Rights Watch.
All human rights archival collections are managed by the Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) located on the 6th floor of Butler Library. Archival collections are open to all members of the University community and the public. All materials are non-circulating.
Our collections have not been digitized and are not currently available online, although specific items may be accessible through other online sources, such as organizational web sites. Please contact us if you need more assistance.
Please view Plan Your Visit to learn more about requesting and consulting the archival collections, and the RBML's main website for other relevant information.
Please contact us at chrdr@columbia.edu if you would like to receive information about our collections and activities.
We welcome your interest in learning more about our collecting programs, donating your archives, and/or supporting our Center.