Human Rights Resources

The Library has a number of specialised resources for the study of Human Rights and International Law.

Law Reports
We hold a number of dedicated Human Rights/International Law reports at Ground Level in the Library. In addition we have a large number of national law reports available in print and online from United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa which may on occasion be of interest to Human Rights Students. Typically these reports will be available through Lexis-Nexis or WestlawUK.

Some of the most important law reports for Human Rights students are:

•     International Law Reports
•     European Court of Human Rights (series A & B) (1960-1998)
•     European Court of Human Rights Reports (1998-)
•     Decisions and Reports of European Courts of Human Rights
•     European Human Rights Reports (Sweet & Maxwell)
•     Judgments. Advisory Opinions and Orders (International Court of Justice)
•     World Court Reports (Permanent Court of Justice pre-1945)

Finding Cases
From an early stage Human Rights have to locate relevant cases. Besides searching the databases, there are a number of reference resources which can be very useful.

•     the print resources listed below, present cases by subject, by article (of the Convention) and are all available in Law Reference.
•     European Human Rights Case Locator 1960-2000
•     European Human Rights Case Summaries 1960-2000
•     A Digest of Strasbourg Case-Law: a Systematic Guide to the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights
•     European Human Rights Reports: Consolidated Index
•     use bibliography of textbooks or journal articles which list or refer to relevant cases
•     search the databases
•      HUDOC (European Court of Human Rights Case Database)
•      European Human Rights Reports via WestlawUK

Reference
The following are very useful introductory resources available in Law Reference:

•     Encyclopedia of Human Rights 323.403 LAW
•     Encyclopedia of Public International Law 341.03 ENC
•     Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements 341.2303 OZM

Journals
The Library has access to a large number of human rights and international law journals. These are located at podium level with the other law journals. Note that some journals of interest may be held on floor 1 in the Arts/Commerce Floor

The Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations is a good source for finding full details of journal titles.

Human Rights / International Law Databases
Below are selected Legal Databases particularly of value to Human Rights & International Law Students. For a full list of Law Databases click here.

• Lexis-Nexis*
• WestlawUK*
• Hein Online*
• JSTOR*
• Index to Legal Periodicals*
• Peace Palace Library
• Social Science Citation Index (Web of Science)
• Business Source Premier
• Academic Search Premier
• European Sources Online

The Cross Search option in Metalib (requires login) allows you to search a number of databases with law content at the same time e.g. Index to Legal Periodicals, Academic Search Premier, JSTOR amongst others.

Books
Human Rights material is mainly based amongst the law collection. Please note that relevant books may also be found on floor 1 in the social sciences area.

• Library catalogue
• Other Library Catalogues 
• Worldcat
• Peace Palace Library

Theses
Human Rights Theses are held by the Library and can be consulted on request. All theses are given records on the catalogue.  From a general search you can ‘filter’ your results to display theses only. Check out Index to Theses and Digital Dissertations .

UN Documents
UN material is usually accessed online from a number of these sources below. For sources before 1992 we have the Human Rights Microfiche collection available in the Audio Visual Room.

• United Nations Home Page
• UN High Commission for Human Rights
• UN High Commission for Refugees
• United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library (DHL)
• United Nations Documentation: Research Guide

The guide provides an overview of the various types of documents and publications issued by the UN and guidance on how to work with them.

• UN-I-QUE: United Nations Info Quest - UN-I-QUE is a database designed to provide quick access to document symbols/sales numbers for UN materials (1946 onwards).
• United Nations Official Documents: ODS Online covers 1992 to date full-text, 1946 to date for resolutions Official repository for documents published by the United Nations. U.N. documents are available back to 1992. U.N. Resolutions, which includes resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, and Trusteeship Council are available since 1946. Use advanced search and select resolutions.

UN Pre-1992
The Library holds microfiche of the UN Human Rights Documents of the following

• Human Rights Committee;
• Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
• Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,
• Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
• Committee Against Torture
• Committee on the Rights of the Child
• Documents of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
• Documents of the International Law Commission

Contact the Law Library staff for more detail.

Internet Links

• European Convention on Human Rights
• Council of Europe   - Includes the text of the  European Convention on Human Rights  and links to the European Court of Human Rights.
• Directorate General of Human Rights at the Council of Europe.
• CPT - European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, includes a database of its reports 
• European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance
• University of Minnesota Human Rights Library
• ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law
  Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• Directory of Human Rights Resources on the Internet Searchable by country, topic or organisation name.
• Amnesty International
• Forced Migration Online - website managed by the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, contains articles, research guides, documents and web links
• Gendercide Watch - information on gender-selective mass killings throughout the world, with case studies
• Human and Constitutional Rights -Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School.
• Human Rights Internet   - international NGO documentation centre (has been using the name "Internet" since 1976!)
• International Human Rights Law -  resources on the SOSIG site
• Interights International Human Rights law centre. Searchable database of international caselaw digests, with some links to full text of cases. Includes Commonwealth case law. Useful links section. Search by keyword, boolean , country, region or a combination, or browse by jurisdiction.
• Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) - includes searchable databases of case law of the international supervisory organs and links to treaties
• Human Rights Archive Project Diana - online human rights archive at Yale Law School
• Refugee caselaw  site - University of Michigan Law School hosts this site to  promote transnational analysis of refugee law 
• European Centre for Minority Issues - includes working papers and a full text journal
• Minorities Electronic Resources - directory of resources on minority human rights and related problems of the transition period in Eastern and Central Europe
• Minority Rights Database - resource at the University of East London, including international documents on minorities and case law.
• Child Rights Information Network - Links to organisations working for Child Rights in various countries. Full text of Convention on the Rights of the Child. Also recent news on Child Rights, email update service and thrice yearly newsletter.
• Refugee Studies Centre - Oxford University research centre. Contains full text working papers and reports and well as useful links.
• International Criminal Law - ASIL Guide to electronic resources for international law.  Gail Partin'ss guide for the American Society of International Law
• International Criminal Court - resources in print and electronic format from Lyonette Louis-Jacques, D'Angelo Library, University of Chicago
• International Criminal Law Update: A Selective Resource Guide - by Marylin Raisch and Gail Partin on the LLRX site

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