International Monitor Institute records, 1986-2011

Using These Materials Teaser

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:
Access restricted. Materials in Accession 2024-0116 are closed until processing. Contact Research Services with questions. Access note. Some materials in this collection are fragile audiovisual...
More about accessing and using these materials...

Summary

Creator:
International Monitor Institute and Human Rights Archive (Duke University)
Abstract:
The non-profit agency International Monitor Institute (IMI) operated between 1993 and 2003, primarily to assist international war-crimes tribunals by collecting, indexing and organizing visual evidence of violations of international human rights law. The International Monitor Institute Records span the dates 1986-2006, and primarily comprise 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, 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 many 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 photos were taken on the Burma/Thai border, in Bosnia and Hercegovina, and refugee camps in Rwanda. Finally, there are extensive organizational records, including an extensive database of the audiovisual components. Acquired as part of the Human Rights Archive.
Extent:
530 Linear Feet
8.3 Gigabytes
Language:
Material in English
Collection ID:
RL.00604

Background

Scope and content:

The International Monitor Institute Records span the dates 1986-2011, 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. The collection 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 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 materials 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 material in this collection, including an extensive database of the audiovisual components and transcripts from war crimes tribunals.

Acquired as part of the Human Rights Archive.

Biographical / historical:

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.

Philippa "Pippa" Scott (1934-2025) founded International Monitor Institute in 1993. Scott was an actress and producer of television and film projects. She was born to actress Laura Straub and screenwriter Allan Scott, and grew up in California and England. She attended Radcliffe College, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

In the 1950s, Scott acted in such films as "The Searchers" and "Auntie Mame". She had frequent guest roles on television programs such as "Twilight Zone", "Gunsmoke", and "The Dick Van Dyke Show". She 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. She produced and directed "King Leopold's Ghost" (2006), a documentary about the exploitation of the Congo by King Leopold II of Belgium. She was an active member of numerous human rights organizations. Along with her founding of IMI, Scott was a member of the Women's Refugee Commission, the Pacific Council on Foreign Relations, and the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

Acquisition information:
The International Monitor Institute Records were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift in 2006, 2007, 2011, and 2024. The 2024 accession is closed until processing and is not inventoried in this collection guide.
Processing information:

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.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Subjects

Click on terms below to find related finding aids on this site. For other related materials in the Duke University Libraries, search for these terms in the Catalog.

Subjects:
Burmese students -- Foreign countries
Documentary films -- Political aspects
Environmental degradation
Forced Labor
Forced Labor -- Burma
Human Rights -- Burma
Human rights monitoring
Justice, Administration of -- International cooperation
Massacres -- Burma
Military government -- Burma
Peace-building -- Bosnia and Hercegovina
Radio -- Crimes against peace
Rape -- Burma
Refugee camps
Refugee camps -- Burma
Refugees
Refugees -- Burma
Refugees -- Rwanda
Refugees -- Thailand
Torture -- Burma
War crimes
Policía Nacional Civil (El Salvador)
Anfal Campaign, Iraq, 1986-1989
Death squads -- Rwanda
Documentary films -- Iraq
Gases, Asphyxiating and poisonous -- War use
Genocide -- Rwanda
Hutu (African people) -- Rwanda -- Politics and government -- 20th century
Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988
Kurds -- History -- 20th century
Marsh Arabs -- Warfare
Oil fields -- Environmental aspects -- Kuwait
Persian Gulf War, 1991
Petroleum -- Economic aspects -- United States
Refugee camps -- Rwanda
Refugees -- Afghanistan
Refugees, Kurdish
September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001
Torture -- Political aspects -- Turkey
Tutsi (African people) -- Crimes against -- Rwanda -- History -- 20th century
Victims of state-sponsored terrorism -- Iraq
War on Terrorism, 2001-2009
Operation Provide Comfort, 1991
Humanitarian assistance, American -- Iraq
United Nations -- Peacekeeping forces
Format:
Audiocassettes
Audiotapes
Databases
Trial transcripts
Photographic prints
Slides (photographs)
Videocassettes
Documentaries (motion picture genre)
Names:
Human Rights Archive (Duke University)
ASEAN
Burma. Nuiṅʻ ṅaṃ toʻ Ṅrimʻ vapʻ Pi prāʺ mhu Taññʻ chokʻ reʺ ʼA phvaiʹ
Catholic Church -- Rwanda
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
International Monitor Institute
International Refugee Organization
International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991
Karen National Union
National League for Democracy (Burma)
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê
Qaida (Organization)
Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines
Taliban
Women's Refugee Commission
UNAMIR II (Rwanda)
Unocal Corporation
Aung San Suu Kyi
Bin Laden, Osama, 1957-2011
Habyarimana, Juvénal -- Assassination
Hussein, Saddam, 1937-2006
Ne Vaṅʻʺ, Ūʺ, 1911-2002
Scott, Pippa, 1935-
Tin Oo, U
Places:
Africa -- Social conditions
Cambodia -- Social conditions
Bosnia and Hercegovina -- Social conditions
Burma -- Social conditions
El Salvador -- Social conditions
Iraq -- Social conditions
Kuwait -- History -- 20th century
Rwanda -- Social conditions
Sierra Leone -- Social conditions
Thailand -- Social conditions
Burma -- Relations -- Japan
Burma -- Social life and customs
Lebanon -- Foreign relations -- Israel
Central America -- Foreign relations -- United States
Israel -- Foreign relations -- Palestine
Kurdistan (Iraq) -- Ethnic relations
Iran -- History
Iraq -- History
Iraq -- Chemical warfare
Iraq -- Foreign relations -- Kuwait
United States -- Foreign relations -- Iraq
Iran -- History -- Revolution, 1979
Rwanda -- Politics and government -- 1994-
Rwanda -- Colonization
Rwanda -- Church history

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Access restricted. Materials in Accession 2024-0116 are closed until processing. Contact Research Services with questions.

Access note. Some materials in this collection are fragile audiovisual formats that may 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.

Before you visit:
Please consult our up-to-date information for visitors page, as our services and guidelines periodically change.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], International Monitor Institute Records, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University

Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1105g