Patricia Murphy Derian is an activist, organizer, researcher, and served as the first Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights (HR) and Humanitarian Affairs (HA), a bureau of the executive branch created in 1977 during the Carter Administration. The papers of Patricia M. Derian cover the years 1962-2007 and document Derian's involvement and interventions concerning international human rights, and to a lesser extent, civil liberties and women's rights. The collection comprises Derian's personal notes; correspondence with state officials, friends and human rights activists; unclassified State Department documents; reports; interviews; memorabilia; and news clippings. These and other materials provide valuable insights to the history of human rights activism and major cases of human rights violations from the early 1970s up to the second term of the George W. Bush administration. The scope of Derian's papers is extensive, covering the history of human rights movements and national policies and politics since the early 1970s in Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Topics include U.S. foreign and military policies, repercussions of those policies, and disappearances, torture and other forms of violation of human rights. Derian's papers include subject files on Argentina, El Salvador, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, South Korea, Vietnam, and Middle Eastern countries, as well as smaller files on sixteen other countries. Many of these country files cover several decades of information and analysis. Especially significant are documents concerning U.S.-El Salvador and U.S.-Argentina relations during the 1970s and 1980s. Other topics in the collection include women's rights, women in public office, and civil rights movements in the U.S., especially in Mississippi. Acquired as part of the Human Rights Archive at Duke University.
