Displaced ArchivesOntheemde archieven:

uitdagingen en oplossingen Eric Ketelaar

Universiteit van Amsterdam

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(a) changes in sovereignty over a given territory without the creation of a new State;

(b) transfers which took place during wars, or as an effect of military occupation;

(c) the emergence of new States through the splitting of former political entities;

(d) the effects of colonization and decolonization.

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Colonization and Decolonization

(i) archives created and retained in the metropolitan countries;(ii) archives created in the colonies and transferred to other colonies;(iii) archives of a colonial administration created in the former colony and removed to the metropolitan country at the time of independence;(iv) archives of a regional colonial administration which relate to more than one now independent State;(v) archives created in the colony during the metropolitan administration and inherited by the successor State.

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17th International Conference of the Round Table on Archives (Cagliari, 1977):

“Constitution and reconstitution of national archival patrimony”

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TERRITORIAL PROVENANCE

The concept that records/archives should be preserved in or restored to the archives having archival jurisdiction within the territory in which they were accumulated   

(Dictionary of Archival Terminology 1984)

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TERRITORIAL PERTINENCE

The concept that records/archives created in a place outside the territory with whose affairs they deal should be transferred to the custody of the archives having archival jurisdiction within the territory to which the substantive content of the records/archives relate.  

(Dictionary of Archival Terminology 1984) 

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Charles Kecskeméti

Archival Claims: Preliminary Study on the Principles and Criteria to be Applied in Negotiations (UNESCO 1977).

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0002/000298/029879Eb.pdf

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Report (20C/102) of the Director-General of UNESCO

on the Study Regarding ProblemsInvolved in the Transfer of Documents from Archives in the Territory of CertainCountries to the Country of their Origin (1978).

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0002/000287/028772Eo.pdf

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PROVENANCE (RESPECT FOR THE INTEGRITY OF ARCHIVES GROUPS)

all archives accumulated by an administrative authority should be maintained as a single, indivisible, and organic unity in the custody of that authority or its legally designated successor.

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FUNCTIONAL PERTINENCE

Records/archives accumulated by administrations responsible solely for the affairs of a given non-sovereign political entity form part of the heritage of the successor to that political entity.

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JOINT HERITAGE

where succession is shared between the predecessor State and two or more successor States - i.e. where the archives form part of the national heritages of two or more States but cannot be divided without destroying the archives’ juridical, administrative, and historical value.

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Vienna Convention on succession of States in respect of State property, archives and debts (1983)

http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/3_3_1983.pdf

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Hervé Bastien, Reference Dossier on Archival Claims (ICA 1995)

http://ica.org/en/reference-dossier-archival-claims-0

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provides a forum for discussion and ultimately the resolution of issues related to archives pertaining to the history and cultural heritage of more than one community, country or region where the custody, ownership and access is unclear or in dispute. This may arise from war, military occupation, the succession of States or other adverse events.

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“Archivists should cooperate in the repatriation of displaced archives.“

ICA Code of Ethics

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