Guide to the United Nations 780 Commission Archive

History of the 780 Commission

The Commission began its work in November 1992, and concluded work in April 1994, producing two interim and a final report that includes several annexes of investigations. On the basis of their investigations, the Commission concluded that indeed breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other grave human rights violations had been committed. The Commission's work ultimately led to the establishment of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1996.

Scope and Content

The collection is comprised of a variety of internal documents including session minutes, correspondence, and notes; published materials; videos; and personal photographs. The physical collection is located at the
Judge Ben C. Green Law Library; portions of the collection have been digitized and are located via
Digital Case of the Kelvin Smith Library of CWRU University.

The physical collection includes several volumes of Commission correspondence, and administrative materials, including the Trust Fund for the Commission and the International Human Rights Law Institutes' Database project; miscellaneous materials including press releases; and volumes of ICTY cases printed from the Internet. The Interim, Second interim, and Final Reports including all annexes, are bound. Photographs (including maps) were framed and are part of the permanent display in the Law Library. The videos are from a variety of sources including the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Red Cross, and commercial news programs.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Use

Most papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures. Copyright of published items in the collection, photographs, or items emanating from various entities may be held by their authors or organizations.

Copyright release given by Cherif Bassiouni and Michael Scharf for Digital Case.

Restrictions on Access

Online materials are available to the public through Digital Case. Library materials are available for in-house use only, and may not be checked out.

Portions of the collection have been digitized and made available at
Digital Case. Emphasis was on digitizing original, internal documents; photographs selected were deemed most representative of war crimes conditions in the former Yugoslavia. Digitization efforts were managed by the Kelvin Smith Library in cooperation with the Friedman Center and Case Digital.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Persons:

Organizations/Corporations:

Provenance

The collection of materials was originally maintained by M. Cherif Bassiouni as member, then chair of the UN 780 Commission, as well as through his leadership of the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University College of Law.

Preferred Citation

The United Nations Commission of Experts for the Investigation of Atrocities in the Former Yugoslavia Archives Collection, 1992-2000, The Judge Ben C. Green Law Library, Case Western Reserve University.

Acquisition Information

This collection of materials was given to Case Western Reserve University Law Professor Michael C. Scharf and the Law Library by M. Cheriff Bassioui (member, then chair of the UN 780 Commission).

Processing Information

Coordinator; Inventory, Cataloging, & Finding Aid: Deborah Dennison, Librarian, The Judge Ben C. Green Law Library

Inventory; Cheryl Cheatham, Librarian, The Judge Ben C. Green Law Library

Preservation & Display: Cheryl Lewis, the Judge Ben C. Green Law Library

Digital Collection: Linda Cantara, Metadata Librarian, Kelvin Smith Library (2004-07), Digital Case, Kelvin Smith Library

Student Processors: Lilit Voskanyan, Alexander Laytin, Wendy Brickell, Tyler Davidson, Adam Justice, Sarah Nolan, Sean Stevens

Bibliography

To learn more about the Commission:

Description of The Collection