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Creator
International League for Human Rights
Call number
MssCol 1518
Physical description
62 linear feet (123 boxes)
Language
Some records in German, French, Spanish, and other languages
Preferred Citation

International League for Human Rights records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

The International League for Human Rights was founded in New York City in 1942 as the International League for the Rights of Man, a non-governmental agency to promote human rights worldwide. The League takes as its platform the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948. The League sponsors studies and programs on human rights, conducts direct interventions with governments concerning rights violations, lodges protests with international agencies, conducts investigative missions, sends observers to political trials, and aids individual victims of human rights violations. The records consist of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, financial papers, case files and printed matter such as clippings, press releases, brochures, and newsletters. This material documents League efforts to investigate human rights abuses around the world, to assist individual victims, and to participate in conferences sponsored by the United Nations and other international organizations. Correspondence files include letters of League founder and chairman Roger Baldwin to and from League members and other individuals and organizations. Also included are internal memoranda, press releases, reports and ephemera relating to the investigation of rights violations in various countries. Administrative records and case files from the Family Reunification Program document League efforts to aid individuals fleeing political oppression in Eastern Europe and elsewhere during the 1970s-80s.

Biographical/historical information

The International League for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization accredited to the United Nations and dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights, was founded in New York City in 1942 by Roger Nash Baldwin and others including Henri Laugier of France. The founders intended to create a citizens league modeled after one which had flourished earlier in France and which had been abolished during World War II. The League's original title, International League for the Rights of Man (similar to its French counterpart) was changed in 1976. Accredited also to the Council of Europe, the International Labor Organization, and the Organization of American States, the League has sought to enforce compliance by the world's governments with the human rights enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Helsinki Final Act.

In collaboration with its foreign affiliates and other human rights groups the League has endeavored to expose and to redress specific cases of human rights abuses by repressive governments involving mistreatment of prisoners, torture, "disappearances", genocide, and political, racial and religious discrimination. Its Human Rights Defenders Project begun in 1982 has focused on defending human rights advocates who have been persecuted by their governments for their defense of human rights. In 1977, as a result of increasing demand, the League began its Family Reunification Program designed to aid persons who were prevented by their governments from emigrating to join family members living abroad, in violation of the Helsinki Final Act.

At its headquarters at 432 Park Avenue in New York City the League continues to carry on its mission of aiding distressed victims of human rights abuses, of negotiating and intervening with governments and international bodies on their behalf, of mustering public support for human rights and serving as a provider of advice, resources and publicity to affiliated human rights groups throughout the world.

The League publishes (irregularly) Human Rights Bulletin and has issued numerous special reports on human rights violations.

In addition to Roger Baldwin, the League's principal officers (executive secretaries, presidents, and chairmen) have included (in alphabetical order) Maureen Berman, John Carey, Roberta Cohen, Felice D. Gaer, Frances R. Grant, Herschel Halbert, Donald F. Keys, Jan Papanek, John Pearmain, Jerome Shestack, and Frieda Zimmerman.

Scope and arrangement

The International League for Human Rights records are arranged in four series:

  • I. General Correspondence

    The General Correspondence, which is arranged alphabetically into a country file and a name/subject file, falls in the period 1945-63 (bulking in the 1950s). A partial listing of correspondents in this series appears on pages 24-31 of this inventory.

    The bulk of the correspondence is that of the League's chairman, Roger Baldwin, although there is also some correspondence of its secretary, Frances R. Grant, and its executive secretaries, John Pearmain and Frieda Zimmerman. Most of the correspondence is with affiliates and cooperating organizations in foreign countries and with consultants and representatives who reported on the status of human rights in foreign countries. Some of the correspondence is in French and German.

  • II. Administrative File

    The Administrative File which is arranged topically relates to the League's internal administration. Included are correspondence (1948-60) relative to the advisory committee and the board of directors; minutes (1952-57) of the board of directors; correspondence (1948-56) relating to prospective affiliates; correspondence (1949-59) with consultants and representatives abroad; press releases (1948-55); and other records.

  • III. Printed Ephemera

    The printed ephemera consists of a name/subject file of ephemera which is collateral to the general correspondence in Series I. The ephemera is listed on page 12 of this inventory.

  • IV. Additional Records

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

The League has donated the records to the Library in a succession of gifts beginning in 1964 and continuing through the years 1967, 1975, 1977, 1981, and 1995.

Processing information

John D. Stinson April 1996

Formerly known as the International League for the Rights of Man Records

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328

Access restrictions

The following records have been restricted until the year 2025: the case records of the League's Family Reunification Program in Containers #69-#83; and the Miscellaneous Restricted Records in Container #123 In order to protect the privacy of individual persons the case files of the Family Reunification Program in Series IV. Additional Records (Containers #69-83); and a few other records (in Container #123) have been restricted until the year 2025.

Additional resources