Paper short abstract:

This paper contributes to the conceptualization of the making and unmaking of the archives of two tribunals in Africa, the ICTR and SCSL, and examines their dynamic role and meaning for the construction and reconstruction of justice and peace.

Paper long abstract:

Vis-à-vis the imminent closure of the ad hoc international criminal tribunals the question of their archival legacy has become increasingly topical. With a focus on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) in Africa this paper aims at an enhanced understanding of the role and meaning of their archives in the local, regional and international realm. As living archives they are a precious treasure-trove of records documenting particular crimes and (hi)stories as well as the international experiment of international criminal justice on the African continent itself. The focus here is on their archives as one of the most visible tangible legacies of the tribunals and as spaces of construction and reconstruction regarding truth, memory and power. Archiving is not only about shelving the past but always about interpreting and reinterpreting, past, present and future. Based on field research this paper contributes to the conceptualization of the making and unmaking of the archives, specifically of the archival legacy in light of collective memory shaping and contestation regarding narratives and memories of the Rwandan and Sierra Leonean conflict and peace. For instance, the nomination of the ICTR judicial records for the UNESCO/ Jikyi Memory of the World prize and the inclusion of the SCSL archives in the Peace Museum will be examined. The dynamic interaction of the construction and reconstruction of the archives is explored in light of their preservation, protection, promotion and permanent questioning.