Human Rights Documentation Initiative

The Transcription Centre began its brief but significant life in February 1962 under the direction of Dennis Duerden (1927-2006), producing and distributing radio programs for and about Africa. The organization was created with funding provided initially by the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) to foster non-totalitarian cultural values in sub-Saharan Africa in implicit opposition to Soviet-encouraged committed political attitudes among African writers and artists. The records of the Transcription Centre comprise scripts and manuscripts, correspondence, legal documents, business records, ephemera, photographs, and clippings. Particularly noteworthy is a large file of scripts and script fragments arranged topically as a broadcast and publishing resource, including material not represented elsewhere in the papers. Making up about a quarter of the papers, the correspondence series contains significant evidence of the Transcription Centre's efforts on behalf of African art, writing, and scholarship through broadcasting, conferences, and cultural festivals. The correspondence files include artists (Jimo Akolo, Julian Bienart) and writers (Chinua Achebe, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Rajat Neogy, David Rubadiri), as well as academics and other scholars (Ulli Beier, Sillaty K. Dabo, Gerhard Kubik, Margaret Laurence, Ivan van Sertima). The extensive body of correspondence with Wole Soyinka is especially noteworthy.

Nine members of the military junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1982 were put on trial by the Buenos Aires Federal Court of Criminal Appeals, a civilian court, and were charged with crimes including homicide, torture, illegal detention, and robbery. The collection consists of photocopies of case transcripts of testimonies by 828 witnesses at the 1985 trial of these military commanders. The 7630 sheets of testimonies, chiefly by released prisoners like Jacobo Timmerman, document instances of kidnapping, illegal detention in clandestine centers, systematic torture, coerced collaboration, and death under torture. Transcripts are arranged chronologically and a list of witnesses is included.

Charles Edmund Horman, a Harvard educated American freelance journalist, was abducted, tortured, and executed in Chile during General Augusto Pinochet's coup d'état that began on September 11, 1973 to overthrow the government of Salvador Allende. The Hormans sued Henry Kissinger and Nixon Administration officials over Charles Horman's wrongful death and its concealment. The collection contains materials written and collected by Joyce Horman and Edmund Horman, wife and father of Charles Horman, that document events resulting from Charles Horman's death.

Audio recordings and scripts of the news report and interview segments of the "Latin American Press Review" (1973-1974) and "Latin American Review" (1976-1984) radio programs from the Longhorn Radio Network and the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean diplomat and opponent of the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, was assassinated by a car bomb in Washington, D.C. on September 21, 1976, together with Mrs. Ronni Moffitt. An investigation conducted by an international commission established by bilateral treaty concluded that Chilean secret police were responsible for the assassination and determined the settlement. The bulk of these materials consist of four bound volumes of briefs filed by the governments of the United States and the Republic of Chile before the international commission.

The papers of Maurice Cranston (1920-1993) span his professional career as an author, free-lance reviewer, and professor of political philosophy. In 1967 Cranston published the influential essay "Human Rights, Real and Supposed." His papers include the page proofs for What are Human Rights? (The Bodley Head Ltd., 1973), as well as subject files related to human rights.

The Transcription Centre began its brief but significant life in February 1962 under the direction of Dennis Duerden (1927-2006), producing and distributing radio programs for and about Africa. The organization was created with funding provided initially by the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) to foster non-totalitarian cultural values in sub-Saharan Africa in implicit opposition to Soviet-encouraged committed political attitudes among African writers and artists. The records of the Transcription Centre comprise scripts and manuscripts, correspondence, legal documents, business records, ephemera, photographs, and clippings. Particularly noteworthy is a large file of scripts and script fragments arranged topically as a broadcast and publishing resource, including material not represented elsewhere in the papers. Making up about a quarter of the papers, the correspondence series contains significant evidence of the Transcription Centre's efforts on behalf of African art, writing, and scholarship through broadcasting, conferences, and cultural festivals. The correspondence files include artists (Jimo Akolo, Julian Bienart) and writers (Chinua Achebe, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Rajat Neogy, David Rubadiri), as well as academics and other scholars (Ulli Beier, Sillaty K. Dabo, Gerhard Kubik, Margaret Laurence, Ivan van Sertima). The extensive body of correspondence with Wole Soyinka is especially noteworthy.

The Texas Farm Workers Union (TFWU) was established in August 1975 under the leadership of Antonio Orendain. Wanting a union that was accountable to them, a core of Rio Grande Valley farmworkers supported the foundation of the TFWU. Despite the financial problems it faced, the TFWU was able to focus the media spotlight on the plight of farmworkers. They campaigned for the establishment of a Texas Agricultural Board and the right of farmworkers to vote on union representation, but legislation died in subcommittee. In 1977 union members started a 420-mile march from San Juan to Austin. To gain more public support for their cause, Orendain led forty union members on a historical 1,600-mile march from Austin to Washington, DC. However, unable to maintain firm financial backing, the union continued to have a sporadic existence until its demise in the mid-1980s. In addition to the correspondence of TFWU labor organizer Orendain, the collection includes promotional materials such as the newspaper El Cuhamil, a half-hour film titled Los Trabajadores Agricolas de Tejas and several phonodiscs of songs for TFWU written by Esteban Jordan. Other items found in this collection are posters, buttons, bumper stickers, and banners.

The Free Burma Rangers (FBR) is a multi-ethnic humanitarian service movement. Ethnic pro-democracy groups send teams to be trained, supplied and sent into the Burma areas under attack to provide emergency assistance and human rights documentation. The Free Burma Rangers Collection features documentary and advocacy videos produced from FBR's humanitarian mission footage. Videos are in regional Burmese languages with English subtitles and translations.