Organized by the Center for Information as Evidence, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Liverpool Centre for Archive Studies (LUCAS), and the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at Central European University
January 10, 2018 | 9:00-18:00 | Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (1051 Budapest, Arany János utca 32.)
This symposium will feature speakers from a range of international bodies, NGOs, archives and academic institutions who will speak to ways in which official records (including bio-records) and bureaucracies, archival documentation, and other more "irregular" forms and uses of records play crucial roles in the lives of displaced people as they travel across state boundaries, interact with governments and aid agencies, and eventually resettle into new countries and interface with their bureaucratic systems or return/are returned to their places of origin.
The aims of the symposium are threefold: to make visible and understand the role of records in the lives of refugees, historically and contemporarily; to identify potential mechanisms for helping refugees and their advocates to locate, access and present trustworthy records on their own behalf; and to work towards a platform of refugee rights in records.
Admission is free and open to the public, but places are limited. For further information and registration, please contact Csaba Szilagyi, szilagyc@ceu.edu
PROGRAM
9:00 Registration
9:30 Welcome | István Rév, Director, Blinken OSA
9:45 Keynote, Problem Statement | Anne Gilliland, Professor, UCLA
10:00 Session 1 | Documenting Refugees’ Identities, Archives as Sources
Chair: Tamara Štefanac, Independent Researcher
Mass Problems and the Search for Individual Solutions. Stakeholders and Interests in Documenting the Refugee Crisis | Iván Székely, Senior Research Fellow, Blinken OSA
“Who Does Not Leave Will Be Killed”: Refugee Narratives in Historical Perspective | Csaba Szilágyi, Head of the Human Rights Program, Blinken OSA
10:50 Coffee Break
11:10 Session 2 | Refugee Perspectives? Or Geopolitical Trends?
Chair: Csaba Szilágyi
Protecting Refugees: An Overview of UNHCR’s Mandate and the Rights of Refugees and Other People of Concern to UNHCR | Yolande Ditewig, Senior Regional Policy Officer, UNHCR Regional Representation for Central Europe (Budapest)
A Non-European in Central Europe: Hungary | Boldizsár Nagy, Associate Professor, CEU
The Refugee Experience: Shrinking Space for Protection | Anikó Bakonyi, Advocacy and Project Officer, Hungarian Helsinki Committee
12:30 Lunch
13:30 Session 3 | Problems of Documentation and Technology in Migration
Chair: James Lowry, Lecturer, Liverpool University
State-based Actors and Security Challenges for Documentation | Cameran Ashraf, Assistant Professor, CEU
Keep Your Eyes on the Information | Patricia Sleeman, Digital Archivist, UNHCR Records and Archives (Geneva)
Syrian Archive Curating Visual Documentation for Justice and Human Rights: Challenges and Opportunities | Hadi Al-Khatib, Founder and Director, Syrian Archive
14:50 Film Screening
15:20 Coffee Break
15:40 Session 4 | Refugee Rights in Records Project and next steps
Anne Gilliland and James Lowry
17:00 Closing remarks | Anne Gilliland
17:30 Guided Tour of the Archives | Robert Parnica, Senior Reference Archivist, Blinken OSA