Prepared by , Foreign & International Law Librarian
Tarlton Law Library holds a major collection of materials on the international legal protection of human rights. Two areas of the law library where human rights materials are concentrated are:
However, materials on international human rights protection will be found in various areas of the law library, as well as on the World Wide Web. Therefore, it is essential to use the online catalog, TALLONS, as well as the methods and information covered in this Guide in order to thorough research.
"Human rights" is a working Library of Congress subject heading on TALLONS. A Keyword search on TALLONS using the terms "human" and "rights" returns 5801 results. These can be sorted by date to display the most recent titles first.
Selected recent introductions to the theory and practice of international human rights protection are:
A valuable collection of primary sources is:
The Compilation is also available on the web at http://www2.unog.ch/intinstr/uninstr.exe?language=en. Unfortunately, only the first part of either the hardcopy or the website (Universal Instruments) has been produced. Hopefully, part 2 (Regional Instruments) will appear.
Two other useful hardcopy collections are:
Two more useful collections of instruments on the Web are:
The first step in the correct approach to doing research in the United Nations human rights system is to divide it into its two main functional components: the Charter-based bodies and the treaty-based bodies. These two main elements are bridged by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which is a department of the United Nations Secretariat.
The next step in the correct approach is to become proficient in the use of the OHCHR's website. The OHCHR website marks a major advance in United Nations human rights research. By clicking on the link "Human Rights Bodies", it is possible to do research that perfectly tracks the bipartite functional structure described above.
On the left are links for the "Charter Bodies", including the Human Rights Council, established in 2006, and the Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. Large amounts of documentation, organized mainly but not solely by session, is available through both links.
At the Human Rights Council, there is a link for "Special Procedures" which directs you to the Special Procedures assumed by the Human Rights Council page. From there, the researcher can access links to "Country mandates" and "Thematic mandates".
On the right under "Human Rights Bodies" are the links to the "Treaty Bodies", including a link to "Search the Treaty Database", which takes the researcher to a search template that allows access to the documents of all the "core" treaty bodies. This brief discussion gives only a sampling of the vast amount of United Nations human rights information available on the OHCHR website.
It is important to remember that human rights are considered by the United Nations as a "cross cutting issue". This means that human rights are supposed to be taken into account in virtually everything the United Nations does, and so could be taken up by any of the United Nations organs, programs, or activities.
For example, the United Nations Global Compact is in part a human rights initiative that takes place outside the established mechanisms of the United Nations human rights system. The purpose of the Global Compact is to "promote responsible corporate citizenship so that business can be part of the solution to the challenges of globalisation." Participation is purely voluntary. The first two of the Ten Principles of the Global Compact declare: "Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses."
Other United Nations organs and agencies that are active in the field of human rights include the:
The heart of the European System of human rights protection is the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adapted in 1950 under the auspices of the Council of Europe.
Note that the Council of Europe is a different international organization from the European Union. It is true that fundamental rights are essential to European Union law (see below), but in the field of human rights in Europe the Council of Europe plays the leading role.
The Convention is usually called the European Convention on Human Rights. It is the first international instrument in the form of a legally binding treaty. All 47 states that are members of the Council of Europe are also parties to the Convention. All states of Europe, including Russia and Turkey, are covered.
The negotiating history of the Convention has been published in eight volumes titled Collected edition of the "Travaux preparatoires" (M.Nijhoff, 1975-1985). KJC 5132 A25 1975.
The Convention creates the European Court of Human Rights, which sits in Strasbourg, France. All states party to the Convention must accept the jurisdiction of the Court to decide cases involving individual complaints.
Judgements of the Court are published selectively in its official reports. From 1996 these are titled simply Reports of Judgments and Decisions KJC 5138 A5 E97. Until 1996 the title was Publications of the European Court of Human Rights, Series A: Judgements and Decisions JX 1980 Eu4. There is an unofficial commercial set of reports titled European Human Rights Reports, KJC 5132 A13 E97. At one time there was a Series B: Pleadings, Oral Arguments and Documents, JX 1980 Eu4 C503, which ceased publication in 1995.
Until 1998 there was a subsidiary body called the European Commission on Human Rights. It performed a serening function that the Court itself now carries out. Selected decisions of the Commission were published in a series titled Decision and Reports.
Today, research on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights should begin with its website, and specifically, with the database of the Courts Judgments, called HuDoc. HuDoc is a comprehensive database of the Court's case law, including recent judgments that are available nowhere else. Full-text searching is possible, as are searching by the name of the applicant, name of the respondent state, application number, and relevant article of the Convention.
Both Westlaw and Lexis can be used to search the case law of the Court. The Westlaw database derives from the European Human Rights Reports. The database identifier is EHR-RPTS. On Lexis, the file is called Human Rights Cases. Confusingly, the file also contains decisions from a number of tribunals other than the European Court of Human Rights.
The secondary literature on the Convention and the Court is enormous. Recommended recent texts are:
The leading journal in English is:
A useful subject heading for use in library catalogs is:
A valuable reference source is the Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights. (The Hague: M. Nijohff, 1960-). JKC571 Y4
The European Convention on Human Rights by no means exhausts the human rights work of the council of Europe. There is a set of other human rights treaties and bodies. There is space here only to name them with links to the Web.
See also the book, Weller, Marc, ed., The Rights of Minorities in Europe: A Commentary on the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). KJC5144 M56 R53 2005
In addition to the Council of Europe, the European Union makes the protection of human rights a high-profile issue. The best way to begin researching the European Union's approach to human rights is to consult the human rights page of the Europa website.
In 2007 the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) was established. The FRA is based in Vienna, Austria. The European Union publishes an annual EU Annual Report on Human Rights. The 2006 edition of the EU Annual Report is available on the Europa website.
Another European entity that devotes substantial attention to human rights is the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The OSCE focuses on Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe (the Balkans), the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Its main field of action is politico-military security. However, the OSCE has established an Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), based in Warsaw, Poland. Note should also be made of the OSCE's High Commissioner on National Minorities and its Special Representative on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings.
Like the European system, the Inter-American system is regional. However, in structure it resembles the United Nations system because it has both an O.A.S. Charter-based body and a treaty-based body. The charter-based body is the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The first key document is the American Declaration of the rights and Duties of Man. The best citable version of the Declaration is found in the quasi-official publication Basic Document Pertaining to Human Rights in the Inter-American System (2003). The American Declaration was adopted in May 1948, and so predates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by several months.
The key international agreement is the American Convention on Human Rights. (Nov. 22, 1969, O.A.S.T.S. No. 36, 1144 U.N.T.S. 123). It should be noted that, while the U.S. signed the convention in 1977, the U.S. has not ratified the Convention, and so is not a party to it.
The Convention has two important supplementary agreements: the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ("Protocol of San Salvador") (Nov. 17, 1988, O.A.S.T.S. No. 69, 28 I.L.M. 1641) and the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty (Aug. 6, 1990, O.A.S.T.S. No. 73, 29 I.L.M. 1447).
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has a wide scope of activity. It is authorized to receive individual complaints charging violations of both the American Declaration and the American Convention. A collection of the commission's decision's, excerpted from the annual report, is now available on the Commission's website.
The Commission also carries out country studies and situation reports. An example of the former is the 2007 report, Access to Justice and Social Inclusion: The Road Towards Strengthening Democracy in Bolivia.
An example of the latter is the 2006 Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the Americas. In addition, the Commission has created special "rapporteurships". An example is the Rapporteur for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Commission posts a lot of its documents on its website. For hardcopy of the commission's documents, it is recommended that the researcher refer to the Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is extensive, current, and available in both html and pdf on the Commission's website.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is a true judicial body, comparable to its European counterpart, although it does not have the same caseload. The Court publishes its decisions in two main series: Series A- Advisory Opinions and Series C- Decisions and Judgements. The Court also publishes decisions in two series that do not have letters: Provisional Measures and Monitoring of Compliance with Judgements. It should be noted that the Court's decisions are often available for a long time only in a language other than English (Spanish or Portuguese), and are translated into English only long after they are rendered. A comprehensive collection of the Court's judicial production is available on the Court's website.
The court also publishes its Annual Report of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Also to be consulted is the Inter-American Yearbook of Human Rights, although it is published several years late.
The Inter-American human rights system includes several other specialized international agreements:
In addition several other O.A.S.-affiliated institutions deal with human rights issues:
The secondary literature in English on the Inter-American human rights system is rather sparse. Two useful but somewhat dated works are:
A more recent monograph is:
The law review literature has a richer selection of recent articles. These can be found using the standard law review indexes.
The key document is the African Charter on Human and People's Rights, adopted June 27, 1981, 1520 U.N.T.S. 217, and sometimes called the Banjul Charter, after the capital city of The Gambia, where the Charter was drafted. The Charter was adopted under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity, (O.A.U.), which in 2002 was succeeded by the African Union.
The Key body created by the African Charter is the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. The Commission has carried out a great deal of valuable human rights work, much of which is documented on its website.
In 1998, the O.A.U. adopted a Protocol to the African Charter on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. In 2006, the African Union organized the Court and elected the first judges, but not much more has happened since. The Court does not have a website. In 2004, the African Union decided to merge the Court with the Court of Justice of the African Union. This is most unfortunate, as the two judicial bodies have very different purposes and jurisdictions, making it difficult to see how they can function effectively as one body. As of 2002 the merger had not taken place.
Two more international human rights agreements of significance in the African context are: the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
An excellent online source of information on human rights in Africa is the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. It has a page called African Human Rights Resource Center.
The secondary literature on the African human rights context is rather good. however, with the establishment of the African Court, even recent works are somewhat out of date. Examples of high-quality works are:
"NGO" is the abbreviation for "non-governmental organizations". These are private associations of like-minded people that act on the international scene. NGOs are sometimes referred to as essential components of "international civil society". Human rights NGOs play an important role. They report in detail on human rights abuses around the world. They advocate for victims. They keep human rights issues in the public eye. They assist and often criticize the performance of the official international human rights bodies. Two outstanding examples of human rights NGOs are Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. There are many more. Directories of human rights NGOs are available on the World Wide Web. See, for example, the list maintained by the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. Another good list is maintained by the Derechos NGO.
The Human Rights NGOs are doing a good job of disseminating their information on the World Wide Web. For example, Amnesty International has its Library page and Human Rights Watch has its Publication page.
Human Rights NGOs publish various kinds of documents. Documents dealing with particular human rights issues, such as torture or illegal detention, are sometimes called thematic reports. Documents dealing with the human rights situation in a particular country are called country reports. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch publish comprehensive annual reports covering thematic, regional, and country issues. One is titled Amnesty International Report 2007: The State of the World's Human Rights. It covers the period January to December 2006. The other is titled Human Rights Watch World Report 2007. It too covers events of 2006. The U.S. State Department is required to submit to Congress annual human rights country reports. The current report, covering 2006, is most easily available on the State Department's website. The hardcopy can be found in U.S. government documents collection, but it is published late.
The secondary literature, both books and journals, on the international protection of human rights is massive. An efficient solution in libraries is to use the Library of Congress subject heading "Human rights". This heading can be subdivided by country, e.g., "Human rights- Colombia". Thematic searching is also possible using Library of Congress subject headings or keyword searches, e.g., "Children's rights", "Detention of persons", "Disappeared persons", "Fair trial", "Freedom of expression", "Freedom of religion", "Political prisoners", "Torture", and so on.
Two guides on the World Wide Web that are particularly recommended are: