Statement Document

 ICA-SAGDAA-WG INITIAL STATEMENT 

 

An archive is not simply a repository [...], is also a theory of cultural relevance, a construction of collective memory, and a complex record of queer activity. 

Jack Halberstam on Ann Cvetkovic’s An Archive of Feelings (2003) 

 

It is the aim of the International Council on Archives (ICA) to create a Working Group on Sex-Affective and Gender Diversity (SAGD) Archives & Archivists, or SAGDAA-WG. The group is focused on: 

01-Archives and documents related to those individuals who are not identified with dominant heteronormativity and gender rules. 

02-Archives and documents related to associations and organizations of SAGD people. 

03-SAGD individuals and organizations related with archives as academics & scholars, professionals & workers, users and patrons. 

The main purposes of the group are: 

01-Create guidelines and procedures for the recovery and archival treatment of archives, documents, collections and data related to SAGD individuals, associations, organizations and communities all over the world. 

02-Propose and promote activities, tools and practices to address the specificities of SAGD documentation in terms of acquisition, appraisal, classification, description, outreach and any other archival activity. 

03-Create and maintain an online hub for communication and resources sharing addressed to SAGD archives and SAGD people interested or/and related to archives as workers, users and patrons. 

04-Raise awareness within the archival community of the importance of the challenges, responsibilities, and opportunities inherent in managing SAGD records and collections, specially of the high risk of loss and destruction of these records and collections due to their specific subject and the long and heavy marginalization and stigmatization process suffered by the SAGD community throughout history to the present and worldwide. 

05-Promote communication and collaboration between SAGD community archives and institutional archives. 

06-Promote an intersectional dialogue with other Groups working on gender, women, social class, migrated people, racialized people, people with special needs, indigenous people and any other group that has been traditionally ignored by institutional archives and archival science and practices.  

07-Promote investigation and academic research on the subject. 

The SAGDAA-WG wants to provide a forum for discussions of issues related to the recognition of SAGD minorities worldviews, and to provide a forum for discussions about SAGD individuals and organizations theories, practices and participation in professional activities, archives and archival management. 

 

UN PRECEDENTS 

In 2002 General Assembly of UN approved a resolution against extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions where reaffirms the obligation of Governments to ensure the protection of the right to life of all persons under their jurisdiction, and calls upon Governments concerned to investigate promptly and thoroughly all cases of killings committed in the name of passion or in the name of honour, all killings committed for any discriminatory reason, including sexual orientation […]1. This intention has been repeatedly insisted through ten similar resolutions, the last one in 20222.  

In 2021 also approved a resolution strengthening the role of the United Nations in the promotion of democratization and enhancing periodic and genuine elections where reaffirms the obligation of all States to take all appropriate measures to ensure that every citizen has the effective right and opportunity to participate in elections on an equal basis, and calls upon States to take measures to eliminate laws, regulations and practices that discriminate, directly or indirectly, against citizens in their right to participate in public affairs, including based on race, colour, ethnicity, national or social origin, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, language, religion, political views or in the basis on disability3.  

By other hand, in 2011 UN’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC) approved a resolution on Human Rights, sexual orientation and gender identity following the 1993 Vienna Declaration on Human Rights where recalls that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status […] and express grave concern at acts of violence and discrimination, in all regions of the world, committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity […]4. Equally, this concern has been repeatedly confirmed through other six UNHCR resolutions from 2014 to 20245. 

In July 2013, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) launched UN Free & Equal – an unprecedented global UN public information campaign aimed at promoting equal rights and fair treatment of LGBTI people. 

In 2016 UNHCR created a dedicated special procedures mandate: an Independent Expert on protection from violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity6. The Independent Expert has many tasks, including investigating and reporting on human rights violations against LGBT people […]7. 

So, the protection of SAGD individuals and communities has to become a main mandate to UN and UN’s system of organizations, also to UNESCO and ICA. 

PROJECTS 

The Group will undertake a variety of projects to support archivists in engaging with SAGD people and communities worldwide. These activities may be related to, but are not limited to: 

 

01-Consideration and inclusion of SAGD individuals and communities’ specificities in archival descriptions. 

 

02-Implementation of the United Nations resolutions against discriminations of SAGD individuals and communities 

 

03-Implications of oral history on SAGD individuals and communities’ history and traditions for preserving and transmitting knowledge. 

 

04-Implementation of various calls to action and processes for archives and collecting institutions related to SAGD individuals and communities. 

 

05-Communication regarding the role of archives and collections in supporting communities’ initiatives for reparation. 

 

06-Investigate SAGD communities’ methodologies for the creation, sharing, use, and safeguard of expressions of their knowledge. 

 

The Group is open to all individuals and organizations who are interested in this field, not only to SAGD ones. 


Text adopted by the members of ICA-SAGDAA-WG, June 2024.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

EGIM-ICA, 2024. Experts Group on Indigenous Matters, ICA. Presentation text. 

https://www.ica.org/ica-network/expert-groups/egim/ 

IFLA, 2024. LGBTQ Users Special Interest Group. Presentation text. 

https://www.ifla.org/units/lgbtq/ 

PAAG-ICA, 2024. Photographic and Audiovisual Archives Working Group, ICA. Presentation text. 

https://www.ica.org/ica-network/expert-groups/paag/ 

UN, 2013. Free & Equal Campaign. 

https://www.unfe.org/es 

UNHCR, 2019. Born free and equal. Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Sex Characteristics in International Human Rights Law. UNHCR, 2019. 

https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/Born_Free_and_Equal_WEB.pdf 





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