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HU OSA	318 C
Authority entry:	International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights

Non-preferred Term(s) IHF

Date(s) and Place(s) of existence 1982-2007, Vienna, Austria

Business location

Wickenburggasse 14/7, A-1080 Vienna, Austria

Legal status Non-governmental body

Mandate, functions and sphere of activity

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) is an international, nongovernmental organization constituted by national Helsinki Committees and Cooperating Organizations in the participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The IHF seeks to promote compliance with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and its follow-up documents, with international legal obligations undertaken in the Council of Europe (CoE) and the United Nations (UN), and with human rights norms promoted by the European Union (EU).

The IHF mandate is to protect and strengthen civil society groups that monitor and report on human rights issues from a non-partisan perspective, and to bring them together on a common international platform. The IHF represents its affiliates on the international political level and in the media, supports and assists their human rights monitoring and advocacy activities, and disseminates documentation based on their research.

Administrative structure

Honorary Chairman: Yuri Orlov; President: Ludmilla Alekseeva; Advisory Board: Karl Schwarzenberg (Chair), Lord Dahrendorf, Timothy Garton Ash, Anton Pelinka, Jacques Rupnik, George Soros; Executive Committee: Sonja Biserko, Holly Cartner, Bjorn Engesland, Krassimir Kanev, Andrzej Rzeplinski, Stein-Ivar Aarsaether; Executive Director: Aaron Rhodes

Relationships

Europe and Central Asia Division (formerly Helsinki Watch), Human Rights Watch

Other significant information

IHF was forced to file for bankruptcy and consequently close down due to a massive fraud committed by its former financial manager.

As the official archive of the General Secretariat, OSA Archivum will continue to operate the Federation's website for an undetermined period of time, while its staff will make everything possible to transfer IHF's remaining documentation to Budapest and make it available for research in a timely manner. The historic documents of the Federation covering the period from the early 1980s to 2000 are already accessible for the public.

Archivist's Note

The remaining archives of IHF was finally transferred to OSA in January 2008.

Rules or conventions

ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families General Intenational Standard Archival Description; OSA Internal Rules.

Dates of description

Prepared on February 24, 2003 and revised in July 2008 by Csaba Szilagyi
Online version updated 18 December 2008