Legal
The American Society of International Law (ASIL)
Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law: Human Rights
This chapter will attempt to provide a guide to the ever expanding area of international human rights law. The focus will be on the electronic sources available for this topic, regardless of the format (CD-ROM, the Web, and commercial online services). This chapter will include general tips for doing research as well as for locating necessary documents and materials.
Amnesty International Publications
The Amnesty International library contains an archive of most reports, news releases and urgent actions published from 1996 to date. Documents are available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic. You can navigate the whole library in any of these languages, but you can also switch languages when you get to a particular section or document of interest.
Bibliography for Research on International Human Rights Law
Human Rights researchers are confronted with growing amounts of materials related to human rights. This bibliography attempts to organize the information and materials into categories in order to ease that burden. While no bibliography can be completely comprehensive, this work attempts to cover the major bodies and sources, including electronic sources such as the Internet.
Convention Against Torture
The Convention is a declarative agreement, based upon international goals and laws against torture, which sets forth definitions and regulations under which participating countries (States) confirm their participation.
Derechos Human Rights Links: Law
This website provides a substantial variety of links (30+) for in-depth research on human rights law, in both English and Spanish, from Arrest & Detention to International and National Courts to Training.
European Council
The European Council brings together the heads of state or government of the European Union and the president of the Commission. It defines the general political guidelines of the European Union. The decisions taken at the European Council meetings are a major impetus in defining the general political guidelines of the European Union.
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an independent, permanent court that tries persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
This site provides the history and documentation of the establishment of the International Criminal Court, as well as pertinent links.
International Human Rights Law Institute
The Institute coordinates a broad array of teaching, research, and advocacy projects throughout the world, with a special focus on the Arab World and the Americas. Additionally, it is committed to developing a new generation of human rights advocates through its advanced training programs at DePaul University, Chicago, and elsewhere in the world.
Istanbul Protocol
The Manual on Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (known as the "Istanbul Protocol") is the first set of international guidelines for documentation of torture and its consequences. It became a United Nations official document in 1999 and is available in a number of languages on the United Nations web site. The Istanbul Protocol provides a set of guidelines for the assessment of persons who allege torture and ill treatment, for investigating cases of alleged torture, and for reporting such findings to the judiciary and any other investigative body.
This document, Legal Investigations of Torture Allegations: A Practical Guide to the Istanbul Protocol – for Lawyers, was developed as a source of reference for mental health professionals during trainings conducted as part of the Istanbul Protocol Implementation Project.
Legal Research on International Law Issues Using the Internet
Legal Research on International Law Issues appears to be an all inclusive catalog of research links including links to additional catalogs, databases and research guides.
Organization of American States (OAS)
The OAS is the region’s principal multilateral forum for strengthening democracy, promoting human rights, and confronting shared problems such as poverty, terrorism, illegal drugs and corruption. It plays a leading role in carrying out mandates established by the hemisphere’s leaders through the Summits of the Americas.
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library Collection
The University of Minnesota Human Rights Library houses one of the largest collections of more than twenty-five thousand core human rights documents, including several hundred human rights treaties and other primary international human rights instruments. The site also provides access to more than four thousands links and a unique search device for multiple human rights sites. This comprehensive research tool is accessed by more than a 175,000 students, scholars, educators, and human rights advocates monthly from over 135 countries around the world. Documents are available in six languages - Arabic, English, French, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
As the principal United Nations office mandated to promote and protect human rights for all, OHCHR leads global human rights efforts speaks out objectively in the face of human rights violations worldwide.
The Committee Against Torture (CAT) is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by its State parties.
The UN Treaty Collection
Under Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations,
"Every treaty and every international agreement entered into by any Member of the United Nations after the present Charter comes into force shall as soon as possible be registered with the Secretariat and published by it".
Universal Declaration for Human Rights
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."
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