Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 304-0-3

Title

Numbered Commission Document Files (''Bates File'')

Date(s)

1987 - 1994

Description Level

Series

Extent and medium (processed)

33 Archival boxes, 4.12 linear meters

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Abstract)

The main series of the Records of the International Human Rights Law Institute, it contain documents, submissions, reports, findings, testimonies, studies, letters and publications received from governments, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations and gathered by Commission itself. The document file was created during the Commission's 18 month in-depth investigation and relates primarily to these areas:

(i) Mass killings and destruction of property;
(ii) Treatment of prisoners and detainees;
(iii) Systematic sexual assault;
(iv) "Ethnic Cleansing".

The documents were gathered at the International Human Rights Law Institute. As they arrived at the IHRLI office, they were stamped with the sequential number for control purposes (a 'Bates stamp'). They were used by Commission staff members who were working on particular sections of the Final Report. During the process some documents of the 'Bates file' were pulled out and organized as separate bodies of documents connected to related parts of the Final Report. Most of the documents can be found in other series of the records of the IHRLI. Additional documents were removed by the Commission in order to mantain the confidentiality of the information obtained, in particular testimonies of victims or of witnesses of grave breaches of international humanitarian law.

Accruals

Not Expected

System of arrangement

Arranged numerically by Commission document nubers, 000007-063222 (with gaps).

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

Unknown

Languages

Croatian, English, French, German, Italian, Serbian

Notes

Note

A few remaining documents which were not removed by the UN Comission are stored separately and not accessible.

Description Control

Archivist's note

Processed by Bosko Spasojevic, September 12, 2000; revised by Anna Svenson, March, 2005.