Note: The video and audio tape holdings of the Interntional Monitor Institute records are described in separate finding aids. A large portion of these tapes, particularly that section dealing with the Balkans, is not yet processed. Inventories are currently available for the following sections:
Burma Tapes, circa 1990-2002
Rwanda Videotapes and Audiotapes, 1992-1999
The International Monitor Institute Records span the dates 1986-2006, and primarily consist of audiovisual materials related to IMI's documentation of contemporary conflicts and human rights violations around the world. Countries represented include: Burma (Myanmar), Bosnia and Hercegovina, Cambodia, Kuwait, Iraq, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Thailand. Includes master and use copies of approximately 6000 videocassettes and 100 audio tapes and audiocassettes. The video and audio material is indexed by an extensive database developed by IMI which includes keywords, air dates, segment producer, segment title, and in some cases, transcripts and stills from the video. There are also six boxes of photographs and slides taken in the same regions, depicting destruction in areas of conflict, forced labor, refugees and refugee camps, and protests. The majority of the photographs, almost all color snapshots, were taken on the Burma/Thai border, in Bosnia and Hercegovina, and refugee camps in Rwanda. One set of seven folders are images taken by staff of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children (now known as the Women's Refugee Commission). There are other images that come from United Nations organizations, including the International Refugee Commission. Finally, organizational records from the offices of IMI comprise a significant amount of the materail in this collection, including an extensive database of the audiovisual components and transcripts from war crimes tribunals.
Addition (2007-0070) (approx. 4000 items, 120 linear ft.; dated 1990-2002) contains master and use copies of videocassettes related to human rights violations around the world.
Acquired as part of the Human Rights Archive.
Organizational History. The International Monitor Institute was founded in 1993 and operated until 2003. Its primary mission was to assist international war-crimes tribunals by collecting, indexing and organizing visual evidence of violations of international human rights law. Videos and audiotapes were acquired through donation as well as on collecting trips by IMI associates in the former Yugoslavia, Kuwait, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Cambodia, and other countries. IMI's activities also included developing regional archives of videos on conflict and human rights abuses, producing film and multimedia projects to assist humanitarian organizations, organizing public outreach events, conducting video research for governments, film makers, authors, and students, and providing educational outreach. Patrons and partners of IMI and its collections included the International Criminal Court and its staff, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the governments of Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia, and former First Lady Hillary Clinton.
The International Monitor Institute (IMI) was founded in 1993 by actress and film producer Pippa Scott. Scott, daughter of screenwriter Allan Scott who wrote some of the Astaire-Rogers films, was educated in California and in England, at Radcliffe College and the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Ms. Scott acted in such films as "The Searchers" and "Auntie Mame," and was a founding partner of the Emmy-award winning television company Lorimar Productions (producer of such TV hits as "The Waltons" and "Dallas"). Scott established Linden Productions in 1987 to develop documentaries focusing on current issues. Linden's latest production is "King Leopold's Ghost," a documentary about the exploitation of the Congo by King Leopold II of Belgium. Scott was a member of the Women's Refugee Commission, the Pacific Council on Foreign Relations, and the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.
Processed by Mathew Archer, Ted Holt, Maria Perales, Clare Callahan and Patrick Stawski
Encoded by Mathew Archer, Ted Holt, Paula Jeannet, Maria Perales, Clare Callahan and Patrick Stawski
Accessions 2006-0111, 2007-0070, and 2011-0051 were merged into one collection, described in this finding aid.
