On 3 March 2024 Gary Price from the University of Minnesota Libraries reports that the University of Minnesota now has one of the largest human rights archives at a public university, and it’s already helping researchers, educators, and human rights advocates across the globe.
“With everything that’s happening in the world, if we can highlight aspects of the history of human rights, maybe that provides us an opportunity to learn what not to do in the future,” said Kris Kiesling, director of the U of M’s Archives and Special Collections (ASC).
Unlike other collections in ASC, the Minnesota Human Rights Archive (MHRA) is an umbrella archive composed of new human rights materials donated to the Libraries, as well as existing materials housed in other collections.
From the Givens Collection of African American Literature to the Immigration History Research Center Archives, there’s a trove of materials about civil rights, LGBTQ rights, child labor, domestic violence, public health, and more. ASC archivists and curators are already investigating how their materials relate to human rights, and how their collections are positioned under the MHRA umbrella.
Planning for MHRA began around eight years ago when Barbara Frey — the former director of the U of M Human Rights Program and a founder and previous director of the advocates for human rights — began contacting The Advocates, CVT, and other organizations across the state.
Kiesling — alongside University Archivist Erik Moore and Social Welfare History Archivist Linnea Anderson — met with Frey, Weissbrodt, and Meyer Weinshel, former collections and outreach lead for UMN’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, to build the MHRA.
The team transferred some materials from HRC in 2016, and later on, Patrick Finnegan, former assistant director of HRC and administrative associate for The Advocates, surveyed and listed Weissbrodt’s personal papers and research materials.
Pooling new and existing materials under the human rights umbrella not only helps researchers by condensing the initial hunt-and-gather phase of their projects, but it also helps potential donors. It’s easier for them to articulate their goals for their material, Moore explained, and it’s easier to connect their work to the broad framework of human rights, than a more granular collection like the University Archives.
The Tennessee Journalist of 18 September 2019 carries a short featrure on a human rights asset in Prague: Beyond the bustling Old Town Square is a little library off a side street. With humble signage and a modest building, the Václav Havel Library welcomes thousands of people yearly. The library, named after and founded in 2004 by former Czech president Václava Havla, is meant to be a hub for education, art and social progress. The main meeting space holds about 100 people, and there are gatherings there almost daily from September until June. Events like debates, film screenings and literature nights are open to the public and frequently entice students.
There are two large conferences that the library hosts each year, one in the spring and one in the fall. The spring conference is meant to discuss Havla’s European Dialogues and their implementation into today. In addition, the fall conference is to award and celebrate that year’s winner of the Havla Human Rights Prize. [see: http://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/vaclav-havel-prize-for-human-rights-pace]
Aside from hosting events throughout the year, the library also serves as a publishing house. “A lot of Czech people don’t know who we are or what we do,” Stránská said. As the institution continues to grow, the concern of the financial requirement and having enough people to run the library continues to rise. “Three years ago, we did not have an education manager,” Stránská said. “Now we are thinking we’ll need to add another within the next year to help manage the interest.”
The library is open for use by researchers, as well as an online database available for public, global use. More information about the library, its history and upcoming events is located on its website.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is now accessible in 501 languages and dialects, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights announced on 2 November 2016.
“Our goal is to share the UDHR with the entire world, and it’s a great achievement for us to be able to make this important document available in more than 500 languages,” said OHCHR librarian Alfia Gilbert.
The collection constitutes the world’s most translated document according the The Guinness Records.
“The growing number of translations underscores the universality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the power of its words to resonate strongly across cultures and languages,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
The DIGNITY Documentation Centre and Library near Copenhagen holds the world’s most extensive collection of published documents on torture and related subjects with more than 40,000 items, ranging from books and articles to journals and images. See:
“Our goal is to share the UDHR with the entire world, and it’s a great achievement for us to be able to make this important document available in more than 500 languages,” said OHCHR librarian 
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 