Outline

Research Guides Treaties UN Materials and OHCHR International courts and tribunals Regional materials

Europe The Americas Africa

Other useful resources URLs for collections of

Country Reports Subject materials

Research Guides

ASIL http://www.asil.org/resource/humrts1.htm

United Nations Documentation: Research Guide on Human Rights http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/spechr.htm

The George Washington Law School http://www.law.gwu.edu/NR/rdonlyres/D07D93

EB-A26A-4B40-A2E1-9DDEE95728AE/0/HumRights07.pdf

United Nations: Useful URLs

UN web site @ http://www.un.org/ Official Web Locator @ Index to web sites of UN

organisations - http://www.unsystem.org/ UN High Commissioner for Human Rights @

http://www.ohchr.org/ ASIL guide to UN research@

http://www.asil.org/resource/un1.htm UN Documentation: Research Guide @

http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/ UN Research Guide for Human Rights-

http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/spechr.htm

Finding UN Documents

UN ODS - http://documents.un.org/ UNBisnet - http://unbisnet.un.org/ Treaty Bodies Database - http://

tb.ohchr.org/default.aspx

UN Human Rights Bodies

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights @ http://www.ohchr.org/english/

Charter Based bodies Established by the UN charter Address broad human rights issues Unlimited audience Majority voting

Treaty Based bodies Established by a treaty Address issues covered by the treaty Audience is signatories of the treaty only Decisions based on consensus

Documents available on UN ODS, UnBisnet Documents produced by the Treaty Based bodies

are also available on the Treaty Bodies Database

UN Human Rights Bodies: Charter Based Bodies

Human Rights Council Special procedures (discuss and report on human rights

situations relating to particular countries or themes) Commission on Human Rights

No longer exists – predecessor of the Human Rights Council

Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights Carries out studies on human rights issues and make

recommendations

Treaty Based Bodies

Committee against Torture (CAT) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural

Rights (CESCR) Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination

against Women (CEDAW) Committee on the Elimination of Racial

Discrimination (CERD) Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW) Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Human Rights Committee (CCPR)

Documents produced by the Treaty Based Bodies are available on the Treaty Bodies Database as well as UN ODS, Unbisnet

Treaty status, special procedures (country), reports by region

Subject index to committees, special Rapporteurs, treaties etc

Treaties / instruments – includes a subject index

Detailed information about / from the Charter and treaty bodies and access to the Treaty Bodies Database @ http://tb.ohchr.org/default.aspx

International Courts and Tribunals

Guides

Pict – Project on International Courts and Tribuals http://www.pict-pcti.org/ Explanation of the origins, history, functions

and procedures of the international and regional courts

International Courts and Tribunals online

Research Guide @ http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/specil.htm

Where to find… Basic Court documents

Court’s website Westlaw (for some courts)

Annual reports etc – Court’s Website Judgments, Decisions, Indictments, related docs

Court’s own web site Westlaw Worldlii (usually judgment only)

ICJ: Research Guides and Reference Works

UN research guide includes a section on the ICJ @ http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/specil.htm#icj

International Court of Justice Yearbook Internat 725 c 858 j-k

Summaries of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders of the International Court of Justice Internat 121a

Bibliography of the International Court of Justice Internat 400 c858

ICJ: Judgments in print

(Reports of) Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders – Internat 121 French and English Annual index

Pleadings, Oral Arguments, Documents – Internat 122 Documentation relating to each case (e.g.

application, written and oral proceedings, documents submitted to the court, selected correspondence etc)

Published after the end of the case in the original language

OSCOLA - cite the print series in preference to other series and online versions. If print is not available cite online version from the ICJ web site.

ICJ online : The ICJ web site

@ http://www.icj-cij.org Basic Documents Cases

Full text of judgments (contentious cases) /advisory opinions (advisory proceedings)

Related documents (e.g. application, oral and written proceedings, orders, summaries, press releases)

Search engine is poor – not very good for subject searching

Background information – history, how the court works, judges etc

Text of judgments and advisory opinions and related documents

Statute of the Court, rules of procedure etc

Information about the courts jurisdiction

ICJ Online: Westlaw and Worldlii

Westlaw International (Directory)| All Westlaw Database

| International/Worldwide | Multinational | Court and Tribunal Cases

Full text judgments and orders but NOT all related documents

Search engine allows subject searching Worldlii – http://www.worldlii.org

“International Decisions” > 26 international courts including ICJ

Full text judgments (from ICJ website) but NOT related documents

Search engine allows subject searching

For materials from beyond the UK/EU choose Westlaw International

International Courts and Tribunals

ICJ and other international courts and tribunals on Worldlii

Worldlii “International Decisions” database includes 26 international courts including:•ICJ•European Court of Human Rights•Inter-American Court of Human Rights Decisions 1981- (Selected) •Interights Commonwealth Human Rights Law 1992-2002 •Interights International Human Rights Law 1981-2001 •International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Decisions 2004- •International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia Decisions 1996- •United Nations Committee against Torture Decisions 1993-•United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Decisions 1988- •United Nations Human Rights Committee Decisions 1977- (WorldLII)

Combine terms using:AND, OR, NOTNEAR – within 50 wordsw/n –term 1 within n terms of term 2Pre/n –term 1 must precede term 2 by n terms *truncation symbol

Search across groups of courts. “All Human Rights Courts & Tribunals” is useful

To find out when judgments were added to Worldlii for each court

To browse a court click on the link, to search a court tick the check box

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

UN research guide @ http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/specil.htm#ity

Basic documents, annual reports @http://www.un.org/icty/ Judgments in print (indictments, decisions, judgments) The Judicial Reports/ Recueils judiciaires Internat 580 I63cJudgments online (indictments, decisions, judgments) ITY web site @ http://www.un.org/icty/ Westlaw Worldlii (judgment only – not entirely up to date)Oscola citation Case name (Decision type) ICTY-year#-case# (date). Alternatively cite International Legal Materials or

International Human Rights Reports.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

UN Research Guide @ http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/specil.htm#itr

ICTR website Basic documents Indictments, decisions, judgments Status of pending cases Annual reports etc

Westlaw (indictments, decisions, judgments)

Worldlii Oscola citation – same as ICTY

Other international courts…

International Criminal Court UN research guides @ http://

www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/specil.htm#icc http://www.icc-cpi.int/

Special Court for Sierra Leone @ http://www.sc-sl.org/

Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor @ http://www.cavr-timorleste.org/

Cases before UN Treaty Committees

Worldlii Cases before Human Rights Committee,

Committee against Torture, Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination,

Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (http://www.law.uu.nl/english/sim/) Databases > Case Law Cases before Human Rights Committee,

Committee against Torture, Committees on…Elimination of Racial Discrimination, …Discrimination against women.

Indexed by subject, keyword, state, name etc

Cases before UN committees

Cases before ECHR

Cases before tribunals for Yugoslavia / Rwanda

Comments by treaty bodies in response to country reports

Browse by treaty article, subject, keyword, country etc

Regional: Europe

Council of Europe - http://www.coe.int

Council of Europe Treaties http://conventions.coe.int

Directorate General of Human Rights @ http://www.coe.int/T/E/Human_rights/ documents and news organised by subject

Commissioner for Human Rights @ http://www.coe.int/t/commissioner/

European Court of Human Rights - http://www.echr.coe.int/echr Judgments and decisions on Westlaw, Justis, HUDOC,

Worldlii

Directorate General of Human rights – documents, news, information organised by subject

Text of the convention, signatories, ratifications, reservations etc

Reports and other documents from the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights

European Court of Human Rights: Judgments

Official Reports Before 1 Nov 1998 known as Series A and numbered

consecutively e.g. Plattform ‘Ärtze für das Leben’ v Austria (App no 10126/82) (1988) Series A no 139

After 1 Nov 1998 - Renamed Reports of Judgments and Decisions (cited ECHR)e.g. Osman v UK (App no 23452/94) ECHR 1998-VIII 3124

Available in print at Internat 121 and online on Justis European Human Rights Reports (EHRR)

e.g. Young, James and Webster v UK (App no 7601/76) (1982) 4 EHRR 38

Available in print at Internat 150 E60 on Westlaw OSCOLA – Cite Official Reports or EHRR

ECHR: Transcripts

Court Transcripts Court web site – HUDOC - http://

www.echr.coe.int/echr Worldlii Netherlands Institute

•Full text searching use the following connectors: AND•OR •NOT•WITHIN N OF *TRUNCATION•? SINGLE CHARACTER

Reports of Judgments and Decisions (ECHR) on Justis

Transcript

Official reports – old style series A

Official reports – new style

EHRR on Westlaw

UK section of Westlaw includes ECHR judgments

European Court of Human Rights Reports (includes all court judgments and selected commission decisions)

Choose “Advanced Search” for more options

Searches full text of all judgments

Searches party names

Searches for cases by legislation considered.

Searches for cases which have considered an earlier case

Full text of the case

Related information including:•List of reports of the case•Summary of the issues•Legislation considered in the judgment•Earlier cases considered in the judgment•Later cases which have considered this judgment•Commentary on the judgment

ECHR web site

http://www.echr.coe.int/ Basic Documents and texts of the court Database of transcripts of judgments and

commission decisions To go direct to the transcripts database

http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/

Transcripts database

European Convention on Human Rights and additional protocols

History, organization, composition, procedures etc

To search decisions of the European Commission (ceased 1999) open up decisions box. Note not all commission decisions are available.

Use … to browse a thesaurus of terms

Make sure the “from” field is not filled in when you open up the database

HUDOC - Transcripts

Some judgments are only available on one language

Full text

Analytical information including dates, party names, who the case was referred by, Strasbourg case law cited, keywords, durable URL

Keywords in context – finds your keywords and displays

sorrounding text

Links to related information

Inter American Human Rights system: Key web sites

OAS - http://www.oas.org/ Charter of the OAS @ http://

www.oas.org/juridico/english/charter.html

Treaties @ http://www.oas.org/DIL/treaties.htm

American Convention on Human Rights @ http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/oasinstr/zoas3con.htm

Inter American Human Rights system: The Commission

Inter American Commission on Human Rights @ http://www.cidh.org/DefaultE.htm Reports adopted by the Commission @

http://www.wcl.american.edu/pub/humright/digest/index.html

Finding cases before the Commission Cases section of the Commission web site University of Minnesota index to Commission

cases @ http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cases/commissn.htm

Inter American Human Rights system: The Court

@ http://www.corteidh.or.cr/ University of Minnesota - Basic Documents / jurisprudence

@ http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/iachr/iachr.html Reports

Series A – Judgments and opinions (Advisory?) Series B – Pleadings, Oral Arguments and Documents (relating

to series A) Series C – Decisions and judgments Series D - Pleadings, Oral Arguments and Documents (relating

to series A) Finding Cases online

Court web site (as above) – Spanish versions appear first University of Minnesota (as above) - Judgments, opinions and

decisions plus related documents Worldlii

Introductory information, publications, country reports

Country reports, resolutions, special reports

Treaties, ratifications, reservations/declarations

Cases

Background information including relationship of Commission and Court

Reports from special rapporteurs, country reports, cases, work with the court

Special / Country reports

Documents re:•Migrant workers•Freedom of expression•Women

Statute of the court, rules of procedure, composition, history etc

•Browse judgments chronologically or by country•Text in word / pdf

Annual reports – includes cases

Search for judgment by keywords or by country/date range

Africa: some key web sites

African Union http://www.africa-union.org/

African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights http://www.achpr.org/english/_info/charter_en.html

African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights http://www.achpr.org/

Africa Human Rights Resource Centre (University of Minnesota Human Rights Library) – is this still current? @ http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/africa/index.html

Treaties and ratification details, speeches etc

Includes link to AU information on Darfur/Sudan and Rights of the Chils

Most recent country reports, and activities reports

Treatieslist of state reports but no full text

Subjects

Treaties, conventions etc

A-Z of Human Rights links (NGOs, governments, charities etc) Constitutive Act of the

AU + documents / information re OAU/AU African summit 2002

Country reports and decisions from the UN Human Rights Committee

Compilations of treaties, books and articles on human rights in Africa. Nothing later than 1994.

Report on NGOs in Africa published 1994.

Journal article by J. Oloka-Onyango (1995)

Other useful web sites

Interights @ http://www.interights.org/ Charity that promotes human rights through

the law 2,000 summaries of significant human rights

decisions from the Commonwealth and beyond Eisil @ www.eisil.org

Treaties, conventions etc with related web sites and research guides

University of Minnesota Human Rights Library @ http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/

Case law database

Summaries of some HR issues, bibliographies etc

Country Reports Collection of links to Country Reports in the ASIL research

guide @ http://www.asil.org/resource/humrts1.htm Amnesty

http://web.amnesty.org/library/engindex Reports organised by country, region, theme

Human Rights Watch http://hrw.org/ Reports organised by country and subject

International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Europe (esp E Europe) For Reports follow the link to “Documents and

publications” http://www.ihf-hr.org/welcome.php

US Dept of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Choose Country Reports from the navigation bar Annual reports submitted to US congress http://www.state.gov/g/drl/hr/

Subject Approach

Amnesty http://web.amnesty.org/library/engindex Human Rights Watch http://hrw.org/ University of Minnesota Topics Guide

http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/topicguides.html Introduction to main issues Links to relevant web resources

University of Minnesota Human Rights Library http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/links/links.htm Links to document repositories, organisations, country

and subjects

Subject Approach

Derechos http://www.derechos.org/ Particularly good for Latin America

Human Rights Internet http://www.hri.ca/ Hurisearch - http://www.hurisearch.org/

search engine searching multiple human rights web sites

Worldlii Human Rights Catalog http://www.worldlii.org/catalog/303.html Links to document repositories, organisations,

country and subjects

Journals

Use usual journals indexes Westlaw Index to Legal Periodicals Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals Social Science Citation Index Cambridge Scientific Abstracts : Social

Sciences PAIS – Public Affairs Information Institute

Links to free journals with Human Rights focus http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/links/

journals.html