Disputed Archival Claims. Analysis of an International Survey: A RAMP Study

Disputed Archival Claims. Analysis of an International Survey: A RAMP Study

LEOPOLD AUER, 1998

Paris, UNESCO for the General Information Programme and UNISIST

29 pp, unpriced

Those wishing to view the world of archive administration from a wider geo-political perspective will benefit from consultation of Leopold Auer's RAMP study Disputed Archival Claims. It comprises an analysis of the results of a survey of disputed claims between nation states in relation to the ownership of archives, conducted by UNESCO in 1996. The number of such disputes comes as a considerable surprise, and the introduction to the report notes that the governments involved have exhibited some reluctance to deal with the issues in a co-ordinated manner and bring restitution agreements for archives 'under normative acts in international law'. One has the uncomfortable feeling that, as in certain domestic cases, important archival issues have been relegated to the periphery by more pressing political considerations, a factor which lends this study even greater relevance.

While the number of disputes may surprise, their origins, and the countries involved, will not. Am examination of the report's Case by Case Survey indicates disputes between, inter alia, Algeria and France over documents removed from Algerian...