Haiti: Political Pamphlets

Pamphlets, reports, statements, programs and other documents and papers issued by Americas Watch Committee (U.S.), Centro Editor de Amrica Latina, Christian Aid, Church World Service, F.H.S.C, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, International Student Conference, Komision pontifikal jistis&xE9; p, Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights, Ligue haitienne des droits humains, National Coalition for Haitian Refugees, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, Pax Christi, United States Agency for International Development, United States Dept. of State and USAID/Haiti.

The majority of the materials held here date from the years of Duvalier rule over Haiti, with first Franois ('Papa Doc', 1957-1971) and then his son Jean-Claude ('Baby Doc', 1971-1986) controlling the country through a mixture of fraudulent elections, populist gestures and the backing of the military. The elder Duvalier in particular took steps early in his regime to purge the army of officers considered potentially disloyal and to augment it with a loyal rural militia known as the tonton makouts. Under this dictatorship Haitians suffered both human rights abuses and increasing hardship as government corruption ensured that little foreign aid reached the population in general. The issues of aid, health, refugees fleeing the regime and human rights consequently predominate in this collection, which originates in the main from overseas NGOs and Christian charities as well as United States government bodies.

Randomly within boxes (at present)

Open to all for research purposes; access is free for anyone in higher education.

Description compiled by Daniel Millum, Political Archives Project Officer at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Institute for the Study of the Americas

Records at item level on library catalogue (SASCAT)

Copies can usually be obtained - apply to library staff.

The majority of the materials held in the political archives of the Library of the Institute for the Study of the Americas (ISA) originate from the Contemporary Archive on Latin America (CALA), a documentation and research centre on Latin America which donated its holdings to the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) upon its closure in 1981. In 2004 ILAS merged with the Institute of United States Studies (IUSS) to form ISA, which inherited the political archives. The core collection has continued since 1981 to be supplemented by further donations and by materials acquired through the visits of Institute staff and their contacts to the relevant countries.

Further accruals are expected

See also Political Pamphlet material for other countries in the region, as well as related material in the library's main classified sequence, all held in the ISA library.