LibGuides: International Human Rights Law: Research Guides and Reference Sources

Research guides

ASIL International Human Rights guide
American Society of International Law electronic resource guide.
The European Human Rights System
Presents historical, organizational, and bibliographic information for researching the Council of Europe’s regulation of human rights within its region.
Humanitarian Law Treaty Database
Provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Full-text access to 100 treaties, the current status of signatures, ratifications, accessions, and successions to the treaties, and commentaries to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Protocols. Treaties can be accessed by topic, date, or country.
Human Rights - UN Documentation: Research Guide
UN materials dealing with human rights, with links to full text when available.
International Human Rights Research Guide
Explains the procedures of the major international human rights systems.
International Service for Human Rights
The leading source for news and commentary on the Charter bodies and treaty bodies.
Universal Human Rights Index
The Index facilitates access to human rights recommendations issued by the United Nations’ Treaty Bodies, the Special Procedures, and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council. Users can search several categories: state, right, body, affected person and, for the UPR, the state(s) that made the recommendation, the position of the state under review, and the session.
The University of Minnesota Human Rights Library
Comprehensive collection of human rights documents, including treaties and other international instruments, UN documents relating to its organs, treaty-based committees, specialised agencies, tribunals, world conferences and UN reform.

Search engines

HuriSearch
Developed by the Human Rights Information and Documentation System to find human rights documents created by human rights organizations, including academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, and national human rights institutions.
University of Minnesota's Meta Search Engine
Searches multiple human rights sites. Library includes large collection of international human rights links.
WhatConvention.org
An international legal search engine on human rights and humanitarian law conventions ratifications by country.

Encycpolaedias

Legal encylopaedias are a good starting point to find primary sources on a topic. They will help you to identify the key legal principles, discuss the historical background, refer to relevant cases and legislation, and may provide references to other writings on the subject.

Encyclopedia of Human Rights by David P. Forsythe
Call Number: Online & KC200.E53 2009
This five-volume encyclopedia offers comprehensive coverage of all aspects of human rights theory, practice, law, and history. It provides situation profiles and full coverage of the development of the movement, historical cases of abuse, the key figures, major organizations, and a range of other issues in economics, government, religion, and journalism that touch on human rights theory and practice.
Encyclopedia of Human Rights by Edward Lawson and David P. Forsythe (Editors)
Call Number: JC571.E67 1996
This book defines the concept of human rights in all its diversity: the rights of individuals, peoples and nations; the rights to employment, education, culture and personal development; rights to a peaceful existence and to a clean, healthy environment; rights in the workplace; rights of special groups, such as the handicapped and the homeless; rights in war; and rights on land, sea and air.
Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law
Call Number: Online
A comprehensive online resource containing peer-reviewed articles on every aspect of public international law.

Dictionaries

A Dictionary of Human Rights by David Robertson
Call Number: Online
This reference work reflects the growing international concern over human rights. It provides explanations of the terminology, issues, organizations and laws surrounding this emotive subject.
Dictionary of International Human Rights Law by Connie de la Vega
Call Number: Online & K126.H8 V44 2013
This one-of-a-kind Dictionary provides a comprehensive breakdown of terms employed in the discussion of international human rights law. In addition to a list of definitions, this innovative volume also includes an appendix featuring descriptions of major treaties, documents, and other important human rights instruments, along with references on how to locate them.
Dictionary of International Human Rights Law by John S. Gibson
Call Number: KC200.G53 1996
A ready reference covering the issues and context of rights including the universality of rights, the hierarchy of rights, and conflicts between rights.
International Human Rights Lexicon by Susan Marks; Andrew Clapham
Call Number: KC200.M37 2005
What do human rights mean in an age of counter-terrorism? How does globalization affect the protection of human rights? Can human rights contribute to the eradication of hunger and the promotion of education for all? This book presents a wide-ranging survey of the scope and significance of international human rights law.