Arhivski vjesnik, No. 43, 2000.
Stručni rad
Unesco's emergency programme for safeguarding of vital records in the case of armed conflicts
Axel Plathe
Sažetak
Protection in armed conflict may be considered as a specialised aspect of disaster prevention. It requires the same approach of risk analysis and assessment followed by the development of strategies for avoidance or reduction of the perceived risks. In the initial stages, the threat is likely to be of direct physical damage and fire resulting from bombardment, while after the fighting harm to collections will continue from damage to the building fabric and equipment, together with dislocation of services and personnel.
Armed conflict protection has to consider two elements: 1. The use of protective techniques in the archive building (in situ protection), building on the building’s own strengths to increase the insulation of the archives from the high energy released in weapons attacks and 2. Evacuation and sheltering of records, which involves criteria of selection for protection, identification of shelter sites, physical arrangements for moving and consideration of circumstances in which the procedure will be initiated.
In one of its resolutions XXXI International Conference of the Round Table on Archives requested UNESCO to undertake a RAMP study on destroyed and damaged archives since 1900. In 1997 UNESCO commissioned ICA to develop emergency programmes for safeguarding of vital records in the event of armed conflict. The “Emergency Programme for Safeguarding of Vital Records in the Event of Armed Conflict” was published in 1998.
Based on the case studies carried out in three countries (Croatia, Costa Rica and Gambia) a general guide to producing emergency programmes was prepared. The guide is intended to achieve a number of objectives: to help the managers of archives to react quickly and effectively in situations of war, to minimise the damage to the most important records, to influence decision makers of the importance of vital records and the need to make resources available before, during and after an emergency, to give archives staff practical instruction on what to do and to encourage archives to take simple precautionary actions which will protect against other types of disaster.
Ključne riječi
vital records; archives; armed conflicts; protection of archives; UNESCO
Hrčak ID:
10462
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.3.2001.
Posjeta: 1.604 *