Charter 87 Archive

Charter 87, or Charter 87 for Refugees, was a human rights group in existence between the years 1987 and 1997. It was concerned with human rights issues pertaining to refugees and asylum seekers. Charter 87 also sought the incorporation of the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees into British Law. Charter 87 was founded and organised by Dr. Louise Pirouet.  The UEL Archives also hold some of Dr. Pirouet’s personal papers and the archive of the Cambridge Refugee Support Group, of which Dr. Pirouet was a key member.

The Charter 87 Archive was very kindly donated to UEL in late July 2007 by a former director of the organisation.  The archive collection itself consists of approximately 3 feet of shelf space.  Incorporated within this are minutes of the Charter 87 Steering Group; records of correspondence predominantly with the Home Office; records of the organisation’s newsletter and occasional publications and files of press cuttings relating to asylum seekers and refugees.

The Routledge Guide to British Political Archives published in 2006 describes the Charter ‘87 Archive as follows:

“This organisation was launched in 1987 to campaign for the human and legal rights of asylum seekers in the United Kingdom, and as a response to stricter Home Office policy regarding the treatment of such refugees and their applications for asylum.  It seeks to enshrine in law a charter endorsing the principles of the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.  The group’s records are retained in private hands.  The relevant material includes minutes of the Steering Group; a complete run of Charter ‘87’s Newsletter and its occasional publications News Updating; financial records (bank statements, receipt books and ledgers); correspondence, largely with the Home Office; and clippings files relating to asylum seekers and refugees.”(Reference: Chris Cook, The Routledge Guide to British Political Archives: Sources since 1945.  Abingdon: Routledge, 2006: page 259. Available in the Refugee Council Archive reading room at QU9.2 COO).

Charter 87 was in existence between the years 1987 to 1997 and was concerned with the human rights issues pertaining to refugees and asylum seekers. Charter 87 also sought the incorporation of the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees into British Law. This information can also be found on DANGO (Database of Archives of Non-Governmental Organisations) at:http://www.dango.bham.ac.uk/record_details.asp?id=906&recordType=ngo

The Charter 87 collection is available for consultation in the archive room but has yet to catalogued onto the library’s online catalogue. However, online descriptions for this archive can be found on both the AIM25 and Archives Hub websites along with details of all our archival collections held at UEL.

The Charter 87 Archive.

References 

Barringer, T. (2013) ‘Passing of Dr. Louise Pirouet’. Available at: https://lists.h-net.org/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx.

Cook, C. and British Library of Political and Economic Science (2006) The Routledge guide to British political archives: sources since 1945. Abingdon, Oxon ; Routledge.

Database of Archives of Non-Governmental Organisations (2009). Available at: http://web.archive.org/web/20090316044200/http://www.dango.bham.ac.uk/record_details.asp?id=906&recordType=ngo (Accessed: 2 March 2023).

Pirouet, L. (2001) Whatever happened to asylum in Britain?: a tale of two walls. New York ; Berghahn Books (Studies in forced migration ; v. 9).