Roberta Cohen papers, 1965-2025

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Summary

Creator:
Cohen, Roberta, 1940- and Human Rights Archive (Duke University)
Abstract:
Roberta Cohen (born 1940) is an international human rights activist, scholar, diplomat, policy maker, and author. The Roberta Cohen papers document Cohen's involvement with many NGOs; think tanks such as Brookings Institution; government and United Nations bodies working on issues of international human rights, particularly during President Jimmy Carter's administration; Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs); war; disasters; and humanitarianism. Collection includes notes, correspondence, documents, clippings from newspapers and journals, recorded interviews, memorabilia, various research and writing files, and other assorted materials. Acquired by the Human Rights Archive.
Extent:
16 Linear Feet
220 Megabytes
Language:
English
Collection ID:
RL.11899

Background

Scope and content:

The Roberta Cohen papers document Cohen's involvement with many NGOs, think tanks, and government and United Nations bodies working on issues of international human rights. The collection comprises Cohen's personal notes; correspondence; documents; clippings from newspapers and journals; interviews; memorabilia, and product from research and writing. The materials in this collection lend insights into major human rights crises and cases since the 1960s. They also showcase Cohen's large footprint, how her advocacy bolstered the Carter administration's human rights legacy, and how her expertise helped to reshape protocols for refugee policy internationally.

Materials document Cohen's personal and professional history such as awards and honors; connections with other human rights advocates such as Francis M. Deng and Patricia M. Derian; and recorded interviews and speaking engagements related to human rights. Additionally, the collection features her involvement in many organizations such as the International League for Human Rights; the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees within the United Nations; the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and the Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in the United States; think tanks such as the Brookings Institution; and others. Files relate to Cohen's work on U.S. security, development, and humanitarian policy; United Nations refugee policy; natural and war-created humanitarian disasters; and Internally Displaced Persons. The collection contains extensive files on IDPs as well as substantial documentation on Cohen's research on North Korea. There are also files on human rights emergencies in various parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Biographical / historical:

Roberta Cohen (born 1940) is a human rights activist, scholar, diplomat, policy maker, and author, whose career has included positions in international organizations, the United Nations, President Carter's administration, and think tanks such as the Brookings Institution. Through the 1960s-1970s, Cohen held positions such as the Human Rights Officer for International Organizations and NGOs, the Senior Advisor to the U.S. Delegation to the UN, the Executive Director of the International League for Human Rights, and many others.

In the 1980s, accompanying her husband David A. Korn overseas, Cohen helped to reopen the USIA program in support of freedom of information in Ethiopia, establish Togo's national human rights commission, and served as Honorary Secretary of the Parliament's Human Rights Group in Britain. Later, she and Francis M. Deng developed the concept of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), organizing the first major conference on the subject in 1991. Cohen also advocated for a UN-related position for IDPs and was an advisor to Deng and Walter Kaelin, who served in this position. Cohen and Deng published the first major work on IDPs and crafted the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement later adopted at the 2005 UN World Summit; their work led to winning the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Additionally, Cohen's work has engaged with humanitarian intervention, disaster and war relief, the concept of the "responsibility to protect", refugees globally, and since the 2000s, a focus on human rights issues in North Korea such as raising awareness of political prison camps. Cohen joined the Brookings Institution in 1994 and after retirement, was a non-Resident Senior Fellow until 2016.

Source: Roberta Cohen Human Rights website, https://robertacohenhumanrights.org/about/, October 2025.

Acquisition information:
The Roberta Cohen papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift in 2020 and 2025.
Processing information:

Processed by Hannah Ontiveros and Patrick Stawski, May 2021; Tere Elizalde, October 2025

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2021-0012, 2025-0090

Arrangement:

Arranged into the following series: Biographical Data; Organizations; Carter Administration; Research and Writings; and Audiovisual Materials.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Access note. Some materials in this collection are original audiovisual items that need to be reformatted before use. Contact Research Services for access.

Access note. Some materials in this collection are electronic records that require special equipment. Contact Research Services with questions.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Roberta Cohen papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1rq9r