PRESS RELEASE
(New Haven, March 4, 2008) – The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) today launched its new online human rights database, the Aadel Collection. The database uses innovative Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to allow visitors to the IHRDC’s website to browse scanned images of original documents in both Persian and Latin script.
Aadel is the Persian word for “just.” The Aadel Database contains documents recovered by the IHRDC’s investigations and reporting program and includes items such as rare newspapers, court records and personal memoirs that have been donated to the Center. This collection will provide human rights advocates, students, researchers, and historians around the world with an opportunity for researching the IHRDC archives for documents relating to the human rights situation in Iran since 1979.
Most of the documents currently contained in the Aadel Database have been contributed by individuals and groups during the investigations of the institutionalized persecution of Iranian Bahá’ís and the international campaign of political assassinations prosecuted by the IRI between 1979 and 1996. The Center will add materials relating to new investigations as they are recovered. It is the IHRDC’s hope that Iranian community will further contribute to the expansion and diversity of the database by sharing their individual stories and documents so that they may reach a wider audience.
“The IHRDC is tremendously excited to be launching its new online database. By making available for inspection the documents that the Center has used to compile its reports we have introduced a new level of transparency and openness to the report writing process,” said Tom Parker, Executive Director of the IHRDC.
“In time we hope this database will grow to be an indispensible online resource on human rights violations in Iran. Iranians finally have a secure depository for important historical documents that might otherwise be lost.”
The Aadel Database can be accessed via the Aadel Collection page of the IHRDC’s website at http://www.iranhrdc.org. For further information please contact: Tom Parker, Executive Director Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (203) 772-2218 info@iranhrdc.org