What we do

HMP is an initiative that documents and advocates for truth, memory, and justice for victims of human rights violations in Latin America. We are a learning resource, researching and disseminating multimedia information about human rights abuses and militarization, during and in the aftermath of conflict. We pay special attention to mass violence perpetrated against indigenous peoples.

We engage students of state violence and mass atrocities, policymakers, academics, and human rights activists in bearing witness, with survivors, to relevant historical events and justice processes across regions and nations. Thus, HMP offers a comparative lens on violence and genocide. Our case studies and materials include Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala, and we are in the process both of expanding and cataloguing the HMP Archives. At the same time, we are digitizing our growing collection for our rich multimedia website, through which students, academics, and activists from around the world will interact with historical memory using the latest participatory technology.

We also involve students in our projects and events, to the effect of inspiring young scholars to work on human rights research and advocacy, including the elaboration of a network of Latin America archivists. In Fall 2013, HMP will begin to host Memory Lab, an opportunity to interact with a depository of documents in New York City, for the sake of their preservation and continued use in research and truth-telling efforts. Through the HMP Blog, we also monitor and report on criminal justice processes based on developments in ongoing human rights trials, in addition to providing access to some of our collection.