A/HRC/12/19 page 5 2. Managing permanently valuable records in an archive 12. A national archival system may be concentrated in a single institution or may encompass many different archives, governmental and non-governmental, each with separate responsibilities. Some Governments transfer all permanently valuable governmental records to a single archive, while others maintain separate archives in certain ministries and in the courts. No matter what the number of institutions is, however, the goal should be a national archival system with the following characteristics: (a) (b) At the national level: (i) Authority in one or more institutions to select, preserve and make available the records of the Government at all levels; (ii) Authority in one or more institutions to accept donations of non-governmental records and personal papers to ensure that the totality of the nation’s history is preserved, not just the history of the Government and its officials; (iii) A framework of laws covering the Government records, including an archives law, an access law or freedom of information act, and a privacy or data protection law. The archives law should affirm that it is the responsibility of the State to preserve the records of Government; At the individual archive level: (i) Clear responsibility placed in the archive for appraising the institution’s records for disposal or for transfer to the archive, for arranging and describing the records, and for providing access and reference services; (ii) Strategy for preserving records of all physical types and the necessary capacity and technical ability to do so; (iii) Adequate resources to carry out the assigned functions, adequate staff with an appropriate pay scale, and the responsibility for control of budgets and staff; (iv) Physical facilities that are secure and adequate to protect the types of records stored there; appropriate equipment to preserve the records and make them available for research use; (v) A professional training programme for staff members throughout their careers, the adherence to a professional code of ethics, the participation in international professional developments and the adoption of international standard practices for archival work. 13. Maintaining all the Government’s records in a national archive has three important benefits. First, it helps ensure consistency in applying restrictions and access rules to archival records. Democracy is best served by a public, clear, consistent application of access policy. Second, by placing sensitive bodies of records there, the national archives build over time a body of precedent in the handling of these records. Such capacity-building in the national archives