The Archive-of-Trust Method (preprint v1, Aarambam)

The Archive-of-Trust Method is TLTE's named, citable, falsifiable method for building contested-history archives. Preprint v1.0.0 is DOI-pinned at Zenodo: doi:10.5281/zenodo.20430548 (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20430548), mirrored at /research/preprint with PDF at /briefs/research-preprint-v1.pdf. The method combines a two-layer architecture (Now/Becoming) with three named protocols: (I) Citation-Tier System — every public claim anchored to Tier A (UN/OHCHR/tribunals/state primary), Tier B (named journalism + established NGOs: ICG/Amnesty/HRW/ITJP/PEARL/Adayaalam/CPA), Tier C (peer-reviewed academia), Tier D (community testimony as context only, never standalone fact); the system refuses to publish a Tier-A claim with only Tier-D backing. (II) Mirror-Publish Protocol — the archive never transmits a submission on a survivor's behalf; instead it mirror-publishes a citation-only civic version parallel to a direct submission through canonical channels (OHCHR, ITJP, PEARL, UN CED, EU GSP+, APG, FATF); this protects survivors and eliminates the archive from the chain of custody. (III) Graduation-Gate Logic — any survivor-touching service is gated behind six conjunctive boolean predicates (DPO, DPIA, named legal review, two-Archon co-sign, indemnity insurance, qualified delivery partner); all six are public, all six are open this era, the predicate is conjunctive and enforced by code not promise. The method is paired with VINMIN-Bench, a reproducible public AI grounding benchmark (currently 83 hand-verified Q/A cases). Suggested citation: Transformative League of Tamil Eelam (Aarambam). The TLTE Method: Citation-Tier, Mirror-Publish, and Graduation-Gate Protocols for Civic Archives on Contested Histories (v1.0.0) [Preprint]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20430548