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Human Rights Law Research Guide

Introduction

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948 lists the fundamental human rights that are common to all people. These rights include the right to life, the prohibition against slavery, torture and arbitrary arrest, equality before the law, and the freedom of movement, peaceful assembly, and participation in government. Subsequent international human rights treaties and state practice have elaborated upon and expanded these rights, thus making international human rights a large and complicated field.

Researchers in the field of international human rights must navigate a sometimes confusing array of treaties, reports, case law and other documents. This guide is intended to lead researchers through the primary materials and introduce important secondary sources. While general human rights sources are covered in the guide, special attention is paid to resources that specifically address international women's human rights.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact the Wolff Library reference desk at 202-662-4195 or by email: intlref@law.georgetown.edu. You may also submit your question via this online form.

Background Sources

International Human Rights Systems: Treaties and Treaty Bodies

This section will give you an overview of the international human rights systems, both the United Nations and the regional systems. This section focuses on the major human rights treaties. There are many other additional human rights treaties in force. For more detailed information on how to locate the text and check the status of individual treaties, see our guide on Treaty Research.

United Nations Human Rights Treaties and Their Corresponding Treaty Bodies

There are seven main U.N. human rights treaties. Each treaty has a corresponding "treaty body" which administers the treaty, keeps track of state parties and their reservations and declarations, receives and responds to reports compiled by state parties, and often hears complaints lodged pursuant to the treaty.

Note: See the next section, Human Rights Case Law, for information on how to find decisions of the U.N. treaty bodies, courts and commissions.

Text of Treaty Corresponding Treaty Body
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Human Rights Committee (HCR)
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Committee against Torture (CAT)
Convention on the Rights of the Child Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW)
Finding Reports, Concluding Observations, Comments and Other Documents Relating to Treaty Bodies

Theoretically, there is a dialogue between the treaty body and the individual state parties to the U.N. treaties. Pursuant to the terms of the treaties, state parties are required to report on their progress towards attaining the goals of the treaties. In response, the treaty bodies provide the state parties with observation and comments on their reports. These documents are an important part of human rights research.

Below are some sources for locating these types of documents.

  • Bayefsky.com
    This site provides links to reports, concluding observations, ratifications, reservations and declarations, jurisprudence and other types of documents on the major U.N. human rights treaties. It is searchable by type of document, country or subject matter.
  • U.N. Treaty Body Database
    Similar in content to Bayefsky.com, this database is searchable by country, U.N. document symbol, treaty, and type of document.
  • United Nations Document System (ODS)
    ODS is a source for pdf copies of U.N. documents of all sorts, including treaty body materials. It is best used when you have a U.N. document number (e.g. CERD/C/225/Add.1) and want the full-text of the document.

Regional Human Rights Systems

There are regional human rights systems Europe, the Americas and Africa. Below are listed the major human rights treaties for each region.

Additional Sources for Human Rights Treaties

Texts of international human rights instruments are usually easy to find on the internet. Here are some frequently-used online sources, as well as a selection of print resources.

Status of Instruments

What does it mean to check the status of an international instrument or treaty? Checking the status includes:

  • determining if the treaty is in force, and when it entered into force
  • finding out if a country has ratified a treaty and has become a state party
  • locating any reservations or declarations

There are many sources for status information. Consult sources from the body that issued that international instrument (the U.N. committee, the Council of Europe, etc.). For more detailed information about status information on the internet, see ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law: Human Rights and Treaties.

  • Bayefsky.com
    This free website includes an extensive documents library organized by country and subject matter. You can find information on ratification, reservations and declarations, state reports, and other key documents on this site.
  • Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General
    This database is part of the United Nations Treaty Collection (select Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General from the Quick Links pull-down menu in the U.N. Treaty Collection database). This publication contains the current status of 517 (as at 1 January 2006) multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General.
  • UNHCHR, Treaty Body Database
  • Council of Europe, Treaty Office
    Provides status information, signatures and ratifications, and declarations / reservations.
  • U.S. Dept. of State, Treaties in Force. Update this publication with Current Treaty Actions.
  • Journals are a good source for this kind of information. See specific human rights journals such as Human Rights Law Journal and Refugee Survey Quarterly.

Human Rights Case Law: International Courts, National Courts, Commissions & Treaty Bodies

International human rights courts, such as the European Court of Human Rights, frequently post their decisions online. Case law from these courts can also be found in the print reporters, published in the language of the court.

In terms of national court decisions, usually only important cases from the highest courts and/or the constitutional courts are selected for publication in commercial reporters. The International Law in Domestic Court (GULC Only) database has national court decisions from 60 countries and you can search using keyword with specific human rights topics. Occasionally, human rights decisions from national courts can be located free on the web. Try www.worldlii.org for links to courts and other court decisions databases. Another option for finding national caw law is to consult an official reporter from that jurisdiction. The Foreign Law Guide will help in identifying the reporters for a given jurisdiction. The official reporter will always be published in the language of the country.

Commercial print reporters, such as Butterworths Human Rights Cases INTL K3239.23 .B88, often publish a combination of cases from international courts and national courts. See our War Crimes research guide for information on locating the case law from the international criminal tribunals.

Finally, many treaty bodies (e.g. the U.N. Human Rights Committee) also hear complaints and publish decisions. Although not the same as a decision from a national or international court, these treaty body decisions are easily grouped together with other case law materials for the purposes of human rights research.

Multi-Institutional Sources

Sources for Specific Courts, Commissions and Other Bodies

  • European Court of Human Rights / European Commission of Human Rights
    • Hudoc (Court)
    • Westlaw: EHR-RPTS Database (1979 - present) (Court & Commission)
    • Print: Reports of Judgments and Decisions INTL KJC5132.A52 E88 (Court & Commission)
    • Print: Digest of Strasbourg Case-Law Relating to the European Convention on Human Rights INTL KJC132.D53 1984 (Court & Commission)
    • Print: Decisions and Reports (1975-1998) INTL KJC135.A5 D43 (Commission)
    • Print: Collection of Decisions (1960-1974) INTL KJC135.A5 E97 (Commission)
  • Inter-American Court of Human Rights / Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (OAS)
    • Decisions and Judgments (1987 - present) (Court)
    • Cases Published by the IACHR (selective 1974 - present) (Commission)
    • Westlaw: IACHR-OAS Database (1994 - present) (Commission)
    • Print: Decisions are reported under Series C--Decisions and Judgments
      INTL KDZ574.A52 I59, but they are cataloged separately in the library. This means that you will need to search the catalog for individual decisions. For example, by searching the library catalog for a combination of the keywords "Inter-American Court of Human Rights" and "Barrios Altos" (party name), you will locate the judgment in the Barrios Altos case. (Court)

Country Reports

Many international organizations and some governments produce reports on the human rights conditions in various countries. Human rights activists and lawyers rely on these reports for asylum proceedings and when appearing before various treaty bodies and tribunals. These reports may contain detailed information on issues such as human trafficking, FGM, rape, extra judicial killings, and political prisoners, to name a few topics. For more assistance in researching country conditions, see the CALS Asylum Case Research Guide.

  • Amnesty International, Annual Reports (1993 - present)
    Also available in print (1975 forward). INTL HV8593.A45
  • U.S. Department of State, Country Reports (1993 - present)
    Also available in print (1980 forward). INTL JC571.U48
    See also the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom (1999 - present) and the Trafficking in Persons Report (2001 - present).
  • Human Rights Watch, World Report (1989 - present)
    Also available in print (1991 forward) INTL JC571.H785
  • International Committee of the Red Cross, Annual Report (1994 - present)
    Also available in print (1985 - 2000) INTL HV560.R376
  • Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Publications (selected documents, 1962 - present)
    Website includes annual reports, country reports and other publications.
    Many of these are available in print.
  • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), The State of the World's Refugees (five editions, published in 2006, 2000, 1997, 1995 & 1993)
    Also available in print (all editions) INTL K3230.R45 S675
  • UNICEF, The State of the World's Children (1997 - present)
    Also available in print (1994 forward) INTL HQ92.2.S73
  • United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report (1990 - present) Also available in print (1990 forward) INTL HD72.H85
  • Freedom House, Freedom in the World (2002 - present)
    Also available in print (1978 forward) INTL JC571.G336
  • FBIS Daily Reports
    FBIS does not contain country reports in the sense of those resources listed above. It is a microfiche collection consisting of translated broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals and government statements from nations around the globe. The reports are grouped by geographic region (Sub-Saharan Africa, East Europe, Central Eurasia, etc.). The microform collection was published from 1975 until 1996. It was then continued in full-text on CD-ROM. To find out what is in the FBIS microform (1975-1996), use the electronic index available through AccessUN (choose Foreign Broadcast Information Service Electronic Index 1975-1996). This index only covers the FBIS microform, not the FBIS on CD-ROM. Starting in 1996, FBIS has been published on CD-ROM, see FBIS Publications on CD-ROM INTL D856 .F35 Electronic. Due to technical difficulties, the FBIS CD-ROMs cannot be accessed at this time. FBIS is also continued in part by World News Connection (see next). If you have questions about using FBIS, contact a reference librarian.
  • World News Connection - GULC only
    This news database does not contain country reports in the sense of those resources listed above. However, it contains the full text of non-U.S. newspaper articles, and some radio and television broadcasts. This type of material can be invaluable in gathering factual information on country conditions.

Foreign Law

The Wolff Library collects for the following jurisdictions: Australia, France, Great Britain, Mexico, Scotland, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa. We also have selected publications from other countries. For more information on researching foreign law, see our two guides on the topic, Foreign and Comparative Law and Comparative Constitutional Law. See below for a list of top resources to help you get started.

Constitutions

  • Constitutions of the Countries of the World - GULC only
    Contains the full text of constitutions from over 190 countries. The database contains English translations for all the countries, plus introductory and comparative notes that review recent amendments and provide historical and political information. This is the electronic equivalent of the print version, Constitutions of the Countries of the world. Best when used with IE. Note: This database is not accessible from off campus. Please contact the Reference Desk for further information.
  • Constitutions of Dependencies and Territories Online - GULC only
    This database features English translations of the constitutions of territories and dependencies and relevant federal constitutional provisions that define the relationship between the state and dependencies and territories. Also included is commentary that describes the interaction of the federal constitution with that of the dependency or territory.

Specific Topics in Foreign Legislation

  • Foreign Law Guide - GULC only
    The number one resource for foreign law research, this database provides the researcher with relevant information on sources of foreign law, including complete bibliographic citations to legislation, the existence of English translations whenever possible, and selected references to secondary sources in English. It is arranged by country and includes an introduction to the legal system of that country as well as the availability of codes, session laws, and court reports. Each chapter contains a section arranged by subject that outlines the major laws for a given subject and provides references to English translations, when available.
  • Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) - GULC only
    The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) is a database of laws, regulations, and other complementary legal sources from various countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. The basic elements of this database are: (1) full texts of the documents in the official language of the country of origin; (2) summaries or abstracts in English; and (3) thesauri in English and in as many official languages as are represented in the database. The summaries or abstracts are linked electronically to the corresponding full texts.
  • World Legal Information Institute (WorldLii) is a collaborative legal research facility that offers links to government websites, case law databases, and other useful sites. We suggest accessing the information by country using "All Countries" from the main page, then select the specific country of interest. Legislation and case coverages varies by jurisdiction.
  • Annual Review of Population Law (Harvard)
    Links to national legislation on a variety of topics that relate to human rights, including HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, and laws relating to children.
  • Legislationline (OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights)
    Legislationline is another source for national legislation on human rights related topics, including gender, human trafficking, freedom of assembly, migration and citizenship. Coverage is limited to OSCE member states. Many--but not all--of the laws are translated into English.
  • NATLEX (ILO)
    A database of national labor laws.
  • International Digest of Health Legislation (World Health Organization)
    Browse by country or topic. Topics include health education, family health, care of elderly and disabled, environmental protection and many others.

Women's Human Rights Resources Online

The following links are representative of the many online resources devoted to women's human rights. U.N. organizations, NGOs, policy institutions, advocacy groups and news organizations are all places to turn to explore the human rights issues facing women throughout the world. Additional resources on women's human rights are found throughout this guide.

These types of institutions are useful in identifying issues, gathering factual data, keeping current with the latest developments and finding reports and analysis.

Databases for Human Rights Research

The library subscribes to many research databases. This section of the guide highlights those databases that are particularly useful for researching human rights. Some of these databases are also included in other sections of this guide, but this sections brings them all together in one place.

For a complete listing of the library's subscription databases, see Our Online Collection page, where you can browse the databases alphabetically or by legal or non-legal subject.

  • AccessUN
    Readex United Nations Index provides to access to current and retrospective (1946-present) U.N. documents and publications. Some full-text documents are available.
  • Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)
    Scholarly documents from leading international relations research centers. Complete texts of working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences. Also, journal issues and books. Coverage begins in 1991.
  • Contemporary Women's Issues
    More than 1500 sources published by over 200 organizations around the world. Coverage begins with sources from 1992 and expands through the present with more than 150 periodicals in addition to non-periodical source publications. Sources provide information dealing with women's issues in over 190 nations.
  • Ethnic News Watch
    Full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Includes articles editorials, columns, and reviews which provide a broad diversity of perspectives and viewpoints.
  • Gender Watch
    GenderWatch is a full text database of publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas. GenderWatch supports programs in business, education, literature and the arts, health sciences, history, political science, public policy, sociology and contemporary culture, gender and women's studies and more. Publications include academic and scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, booklets and pamphlets,conference proceedings, and government, NGO and special reports.
  • Legal Scholarship Network
    LSN is part of the Social Science Research Network and includes working papers as well as articles accepted for publication in various areas of law, including human rights. Working papers are available for downloading. Journal articles will need to be accessed from HeinOnline, Westlaw or Lexis.
  • Official Document System of the United Nations
    ODS is a fully searchable electronic repository for UN materials which offers full text documents issued since 1992 along with resolutions and decisions adopted by the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, and the Trusteeship Council since 1946. Documents are presented in image format with easy printing. This website provides us with invaluable and speedy access to UN documents.
  • TIARA (US Treaties and International Agreements)
    Contains over 12000 treaties and agreements, the earliest of which dates back to 1783. It also contains Senate Treaty Documents from no. 96-1 through the current Congress, and the US Department documents from DOS 86-1 to the present.
  • United Nations Treaty Collection
    Collection includes 5 categories of treaty-related data. Status of multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary General, UN Treaty series, recently deposited multilateral treaties, photographs of Treaty Signature ceremonies and Titles of multilateral treaties in the official UN languages.
  • World News Connection (Access also through Westlaw (WNC))
    Successor to the Daily Reports from the FBIS and the JPRS Reports provided through the NTIS. Contains the full text summaries of non-U.S. newspaper articles, conference proceedings, radio and television broadcasts, periodicals and non-classified technical reports.

Periodical Literature

Want to find out if you can get electronic access to a journal article through the library? Check the E-Journal Finder! From the library homepage, it's the first link under Quick Links. The E-Journal Finder even tells you if a journal is available on Lexis and Westlaw. To use the E-Journal Finder, type in the name of the journal, and see what sources will give you full-text electronic access. If we don't have the journal electronically, check the library catalog for a print version or request the article through interlibrary loan.

Indexes & Periodicals Databases

Periodical literature is a good way to obtain background information, locate the text of a foreign law, a citation, or locate information about a subject. Westlaw and Lexis provide excellent coverage of U.S. law reviews, but you should consider expanding your journal research to European journals. The databases listed below provide full text articles from legal and social science journals. Human Rights is an interdisciplinary topic and you may need to consult international relations, sociology, and other non-law topics during your research. We recommend that you use the advanced search feature.

To obtain the best comprehensive results, use periodical indexes to locate relevant citations. Below are listed a few of the most commonly used journal indexes. See our journal indexes page for a complete list. If you are new to using indexes to find articles, have a look at these two guides: Locating Journal Articles: Foreign & International and Using Articles for Legal and Non-Legal Research.

  • Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals is an index of foreign law reviews many of which may not be in English. Searching, citations, and index terms are in English.
  • Legal Periodicals and Books is a comprehensive index of mainly U.S. law reviews, bar journals, and more from 1981 to the present. For historical research, search the Legal Periodicals Retrospective (be sure to "check" the retro box) which covers the years 1918-1981.
  • Legal Journals Index is part of Current Legal Information and provides citations from 320 British and European periodicals in the legal and financial areas. Note: this requires a password.

Selected Specialized Journals and Yearbooks

Frequently the library does not have electronic access to journals that are published outside of the United States. These journals may be available in print in the library or you can request an article through interlibrary loan. In the area of human rights, it is often useful to explore a non-U.S. perspective on a topic.

Non-U.S. journals are generally not available in Lexis and Westlaw, so if you limited your research to only these two databases, you may miss some crucial material. It is better to augment your Lexis and Westlaw research with the databases listed above.

Some non-U.S. journals, as well as a sampling of U.S. journals are listed below. Electronic access - when available - is indicated below. Note that the library may have older or most recent issues of a journal that are not available electronically.

Journals
  • African Human Rights Law Journal INTL K1.F25
    Available electronically through HeinOnline (2001 - 2003) - GULC only.
  • Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law INTL K1.S739
    Available electronically through Academic Search Premier (2000 - 2005) - GULC only. For access, click Academic Search Premier, then select EBSCOhost Web.
  • Australian Journal of Human Rights INTL K1.U7815
    Only available in print in the library.
  • Columbia Human Rights Law Review INTL K3.O36
    Available electronically through HeinOnline (1967 - 2005) - GULC only.
  • East European Human Rights Review INTL K5.A84
    Only available in print in the library.
  • European Human Rights Law Review INTL K5.U7 47
    Only available in print in the library.
  • Harvard Human Rights Journal INTL K8.A8234
    Available electronically through HeinOnline (1988 - 2005), Lexis and Westlaw.
  • Human Rights Law Review INTL K8.U455
    Available electronically through HeinOnline (2001 - 2002), Lexis and Westlaw.
  • Indian Journal of Human Rights and the Law INTL K9.N1992
    Only available in print in the library.
  • The International Journal of Human Rights INTL K9.N78445
    Available electronically through Academic Search Premier (2000 - 2005) - GULC only. For access, click Academic Search Premier, then select EBSCOhost Web.
  • International Journal on Minority and Group Rights INTL K9.N7896
    Available electronically through HeinOnline (1993 - 2002) - GULC only.
  • Mediterranean Journal of Human Rights INTL K13.E47
    Only available in print in the library.
  • Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights INTL K14.E285
    Only available in print in the library.
  • South African Journal on Human Rights INTL K23.O6
    Available electronically through HeinOnline (1985 - 2003) - GULC only.
  • South Asian Journal of Human Rights INTL K23.O705
    Only available in print in the library.
  • Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal INTL K29.A27
    Available electronically through Lexis (1998 - current). [Legal > Secondary Legal > Law Reviews & Journals > Individual Law Reviews & Journals > V-Z]
Yearbooks

Yearbooks are similar to journals, but - as the name implies - are published only annually. Some yearbooks cover a topic (e.g. human rights or environmental law), some are published by a country and reflect that country's state practice (e.g. Israel Yearbook on Human Rights), while others cover an individual institution or an international treaty (e.g. the Torture Convention). Here are a few yearbooks devoted to human rights issues.

  • Human Rights Year Book INTL KPK209.5.M36
    Only available in print in the library.
  • Israel Yearbook on Human Rights INTL KMK2095.A13 I8
    Only available in print in the library.
  • Yearbook of Human Rights & Internet INTL K564.C6 A18
    Only available in print in the library.
  • Yearbook of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
    INTL KJC5132.A41987 Y43 Only available in print in the library.
  • Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights
    INTL KJC5132.A52 E9 Only available in print in the library.

Current Awareness

In addition to keeping you up-to-date with what is going on in international human rights law, current awareness tools are helpful for identifying paper topics.

Jurist

Jurist, the legal news and real-time legal research website maintained at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, provides excellent current awareness pages on various topics in human rights. Clicking on the main link takes you to the news page for that topic. You can also click on the RSS Feed link for each topic and paste this URL into a personal news aggregator [Wikipedia backgrounder].

This is just a selection of topics. There are many more on the main Jurist current awareness page.

More Current Awareness Tools

  • Human Rights Tools.org tracks six human rights news feeds (Human Rights Watch, AI, Jurist, Human Rights Listings, ReliefWeb & FIDH). It also offers an email newsletter on the latest human rights developments.
  • AllAfrica.com
    AllAfrica.com aggregates, produces and distributes news from across Africa. It posts over 1,000 stories daily in English and French. Browse headlines by region / country or by topic.

IGOs and NGOs Concerned with Human Rights

There are many international organizations which focus on human rights. Some organizations promulgate instruments and adjudicate human rights issues. Non-governmental organizations play an important role in the development of norms, institutions, and procedures for protecting human rights. A great deal of information is produced by both IGOs and NGOs. Author searches by the name of the organization will often result in a list of the reports and documents produced by the organization. Keyword searching is another option. Many of these organizations post their reports and other documents on the internet.

For more information on mega-lists of IGOs and NGOs and directories, see our IGOs & NGOs research guide.

Selected Inter-Governmental Organizations

Selected Non-Governmental Organizations

Bibliographies and Other Research Guides

Bibliographies

Bibliographies do some of your research for you! They're usually a list of articles and books on a specific topic. They can save you a lot of time in your research. Human rights law is an area that offers a wide range of bibliographies, both general and topic-specific (trafficking, crimes of honour, human rights in Asia, etc.)

Bibliographies from the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library

Other Research Guides

Want more information about human rights law? These other research guides may help.

Revised January 2008 (mms)

Page last saved 06-Aug-2008