Documentation, decentralisation, worldmaking: Amnesty International's Sierra Leone section, 1980s–1990s

Abstract

In this article I examine the process of using documentation to engage in institution building and (re)ordering. As such I contribute to understanding ways that actors built non-governmental institutions for worldmaking, the shaping of geopolitical relations. I also contribute to the project of writing a history of decentralisation, a key form of (re)ordering in the late twentieth century. The actors at the heart of this article are Amnesty International's Sierra Leonean section, who used documentation to interact with the rest of the organisation and develop and circulate a theory of the decentralised international organisation. They did this by documenting what was actually happening on the ground and circulating this information up to the organisational centre of Amnesty in an attempt to shape its policy. While using the case of Amnesty's Sierra Leone section, this article illuminates broader patterns in the organisation and its findings will be relevant to scholars interested in understanding how non-state actors engage in worldmaking via non-governmental organisations.