Accountability, human rights and social justice are inextricably linked. Rights cannot be defended and upheld, and inequalities cannot be highlighted and challenged in the absence of accountability. In recent decades, recordkeepers have increasingly emphasised the role of archives and records in facilitating accountability, upholding rights and exposing instances of social injustice. This paper assesses the twenty-first-century recordkeeping literature as it relates to the ethical issues of accountability, human rights and social justice in public sector recordkeeping. While there is some consensus on the role of recordkeeping with regard to accountability and human rights, there is less agreement regarding social justice, which remains a contested and poorly defined concept in the literature. The debates around accountability, human rights and social justice impact on perceptions of the role of the archivist and have led to a strong trend towards more activist interpretations, with increasing calls for greater inclusion and the development of participatory recordkeeping models. Despite this trend, implementation remains a challenge, and the gap between theory and practice needs to be continually addressed.

问责制、人权和社会正义密不可分。如果没有问责制，就无法捍卫和维护权利，也无法突出和挑战不平等。近几十年来，记录员越来越强调档案和记录在促进问责制、维护权利和揭露社会不公正事件方面的作用。本文评估了 21 世纪的记录保存文献，因为它涉及公共部门记录保存中的问责、人权和社会正义等伦理问题。尽管对记录保存在问责制和人权方面的作用达成了一些共识，但关于社会正义的共识却较少，这在文献中仍然是一个有争议且定义不明确的概念。围绕问责制的辩论，人权和社 尽管有这种趋势，但实施仍然是一个挑战，需要不断解决理论与实践之间的差距。