Archives have played important roles in the documentation of human rights abuses worldwide. The exile of the Chagossian people during the creation of the U.S. military base on the Indian Ocean island Diego Garcia is one of the world’s least known human rights violations. In recent years, government documents and other archival materials from the Chagos Islands, Britain, the US, Mauritius, and the Seychelles have been critical to exposing this history in courtrooms, the media, and other settings. The Chagos Archive is attempting to collect and organize all the available documentary material worldwide. The Archive hopes to provide an unprecedented resource for Chagossians, lawyers, journalists, scholars, students, teachers, and members of the public interested in learning about and creating new knowledge about the history of the Chagossians and Diego Garcia. The Archive hopes to expand in the future to allow Chagossians to add oral history interviews and other types of documentation about life in Chagos and in exile. The Chagos Archive will document the moment when Chagossians are finally allowed to return home.
Technical details here: Sources, personal collections, UKPA restrictions, etc.