The Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame has launched the Legacy Project, a new initiative to migrate a digital archive of more than 200,000 audiovisual and textual materials from the Colombian Truth Commission to the university’s servers and to develop a global platform.
In collaboration with the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society, the Clingen Family Center for the Study of Modern Ireland, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the Colombian Truth Commission, a myriad of narratives and memories related to Colombia’s 52-year armed conflict will be translated into English and made accessible to the world in perpetuity.
The collection will be a rich resource for researchers, educators, scholars, policymakers, peacebuilders, artists and creators to advance transitional justice, human rights and the centrality of victims, across their respective fields. By making this national heritage globally accessible, the Legacy Project will inform and shape peacebuilding and policy making around the world.
“This is a project that has been in the making for many years,” said Josefina Echavarría Alvarez, Director of the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) and the lead for the Legacy Project. “Here at the University of Notre Dame, we want to safeguard all these wonderful digital files and further develop and explore them together.”
“Looking to the decades to come, we are aiming to build this project on four pillars: research, policy, practice, and teaching. With the help of our partner institutes from the Keough School and across the university, we know the potential of this project for peacebuilding and research is boundless,” said Echavarría Alvarez.
Notre Dame was selected as the host of this archive because of the relationship between the Colombian Truth Commission and the Kroc Institute’s Barometer Initiative, which oversees the technical verification and monitoring of the implementation of the 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement.
“The Kroc Institute has always been engaged with Colombia and our work,” said Maria Paula Prada, advisor to the Presidency of the Colombian Truth Commission. “Its engagement with building peace around the world is inspiring. Because they are an important ally for us, we feel secure in allowing them to preserve our archive online and therefore guarantee its access to any individual around the world.”
With the Legacy Project, the University of Notre Dame advances a commitment to Integral Human Development after violent conflict and contributes to lessons about peace processes, reconciliation, clarification and preservation of the truth.
In support of this project, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies have developed grant opportunities to encourage academics and researchers to use materials from the Legacy Project and the Colombian Truth Commission within their work.
Learn more about the Legacy Project at kroc.nd.edu/legacyproject.
Author: Jena O’Brien
