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 United Nations Documentation: Research Guide on Human Rights The George Washington Law School 3EB-A26A-4B40-A2E1- 9DDEE95728AE/0/HumRights07.pdf 3EB-A26A-4B40-A2E1- 9DDEE95728AE/0/HumRights07.pdf
United Nations: Useful URLs UN web Official Web Index to web sites of UN organisations - UN High Commissioner for Human ASIL guide to UN UN Documentation: Research UN Research Guide for Human Rights- m m
Finding UN Documents UN ODS - UNBisnet - Treaty Bodies Database -
UN Human Rights Bodies UN High Commissioner for Human 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 efault.aspx efault.aspx
International Courts and Tribunals
Guides Pict – Project on International Courts and Tribuals Explanation of the origins, history, functions and procedures of the international and regional courts
International Courts and Tribunals online Research 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 ecil.htm#icj ecil.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 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 – “ 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 (Selected) Interights Commonwealth Human Rights Law Interights International Human Rights Law International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Decisions International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia Decisions United Nations Committee against Torture Decisions United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Decisions United Nations Human Rights Committee Decisions (WorldLII)
Combine terms using: AND, OR, NOT NEAR – within 50 words w/n –term 1 within n terms of term 2 Pre/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 Basic documents, annual Judgments in print (indictments, decisions, judgments) The Judicial Reports/ Recueils judiciaires Internat 580 I63c Judgments online (indictments, decisions, judgments) ITY web 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 ecil.htm#itr ecil.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 tm#icc tm#icc Special Court for Sierra Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East
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 ( 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 - Council of Europe Treaties Directorate General of Human documents and news organised by subject Commissioner for Human European Court of Human Rights 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 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 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 Basic Documents and texts of the court Database of transcripts of judgments and commission decisions To go direct to the transcripts database
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 - Charter of the charter.html charter.html American Convention on Human instr/zoas3con.htm instr/zoas3con.htm
Inter American Human Rights system: The Commission Inter American Commission on Human Reports adopted by the gest/ index.html gest/ index.html Finding cases before the Commission Cases section of the Commission web site University of Minnesota index to Commission ssn.htm ssn.htm
Inter American Human Rights system: The Court University of Minnesota - Basic Documents / 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/d eclarations 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 African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights Africa Human Rights Resource Centre (University of Minnesota Human Rights Library) – is this still
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 Treaties list 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 Report on NGOs in Africa published Journal article by J. Oloka-Onyango (1995)
Other useful web sites Charity that promotes human rights through the law 2,000 summaries of significant human rights decisions from the Commonwealth and beyond Treaties, conventions etc with related web sites and research guides University of Minnesota Human Rights
Case law database Summaries of some HR issues, bibliographies etc
Country Reports Collection of links to Country Reports in the ASIL research Amnesty Reports organised by country, region, theme Human Rights Watch 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” US Dept of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Choose Country Reports from the navigation bar Annual reports submitted to US congress
Subject Approach Amnesty Human Rights Watch University of Minnesota Topics Guide ides.html ides.html Introduction to main issues Links to relevant web resources University of Minnesota Human Rights Library Links to document repositories, organisations, country and subjects
Subject Approach Derechos Particularly good for Latin America Human Rights Internet Hurisearch - search engine searching multiple human rights web sites Worldlii Human Rights Catalog 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