We are excited to announce that the papers of Ellen Lutz are processed, and a collection guide is now available in the Tufts Digital Library.
Ellen Louise Lutz (1955-2010) devoted her life to the defense and advocacy of human rights as a prolific lawyer, teacher, writer, world traveler and activist. She worked in several positions at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy from 1995 through 2004, eventually serving as Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution. Ellen’s papers provide a unique resource of primary material that document the diversity and richness of Ellen’s efforts in support of international human rights.
Some of the earliest material in the collection dates from 1971 to 1972, when Ellen travelled to Uruguay as a high school exchange student, an experience that influenced the course of her future career. While in Uruguay, Ellen witnessed the turbulent months preceding the military dictatorship that controlled the country from 1973 through 1985, and her papers include correspondence from friends in Uruguay during the period directly preceding and following the establishment of the military regime.
Years later, in September of 1997, Ellen travelled to Bosnia-Herzegovina as an International Election Supervisor for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). During this trip, Ellen took hundreds of photographs available now in her collection. These images poignantly capture the beauty of the country’s land and people; a setting that still evinced the devastation of the Bosnian War two years after the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed in 1995.
Other activities documented in Ellen’s papers include her work for Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Fletcher and the Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, and Cultural Survival. Topics covered include reparation, torture, universal jurisdiction, accountability, democracy, human rights in Latin America, transitional justice, and the application of negotiation and mediation skills in human rights advocacy.