Conducts research and collects data on the global history of labour, workers, and labour relations

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Willem van Bennekom
In the first months of 2011 the IISH acquired the papers of the Amsterdam lawyer and judge Willem van Bennekom. Born in Amsterdam in 1941 Van Bennekom grew up in Middelburg, in the southwest of the... [Collection highlight]
Amnesty International's 50th anniversary
Amnesty International was founded on 28 May 1961. On this day, the British lawyer Peter Benenson published an article called 'The Forgotten Prisoners' in The Observer.Benenson called attention to the... [Collection highlight]
Madres de Plaza de Mayo
On March 24, 1976, a military junta under General Jorge Rafael Videla took power in Argentina. It disbanded parliament, suppressed all political parties, and took control of the trade unions. One aim... [Collection highlight]
Marguerite Guzmán Bouvard
Marguerite Guzmán Bouvard, poet and author of the book Revolutionizing Motherhood; the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1994) gave the IISH material that she used for this publication on the best-known... [Collection highlight]
Scriptieprijs 2015 voor onderzoek naar Koerdisch Martelmuseum
Bareez Majid won de Volkskrant-IISG Scriptieprijs voor geschiedenis 2015 voor haar scriptie over het Koerdische martelmuseum, Amna Suraka.  Een herinneringsplaats in een door Saddam Hoessein... [News]
Founder of Amnesty International died
Peter Benenson (1921-2005), lawyer and founder of human rights' organisation Amnesty International, has passed away.In November 1960 Benenson read about two Portuguese students who were imprisoned... [News]
Lost and Never Found
The leftist feminist writer Alaide Foppa (born 1914) frequently denounced the Guatemalan government for human rights violations. Both her sons had been killed as guerilla fighters in Guatemala. Foppa... [Item of the Day]
Oppressed, Not Defeated
'Oppressed, not defeated' is printed in small type on a pamphlet published by the Bolivian Human Rights Committee about the Cochabamba massacre. On 23 January 1974 Indian peasants protested against... [Item of the Day]
Nobel Prize for Rigoberta Menchú
The Nobel Prize for the Guatemalan peasant's daughter Rigoberta Menchú (* 1959) on 10 December 1992 thrilled people world wide. Menchú's fight for social justice and the rights of Indians was now... [Item of the Day]
Amnesty International
An important part of Amnesty International's work is to inform the news media. People who themselves have a history of political imprisonment can do this very convincingly. On 18 January 1977 the... [Item of the Day]

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