V.Research Guide

Contents

V.Research Guide

1.Universal Human Rights Index

i.UN Treaty Body Jurisprudence

2.Ratifications of UN Human Rights Treaties - Current List of Parties and Signatories to UN Treaties

3.Other UN Instruments

4.The European Court of Human Rights Decisions Database

5.Organization of American States (OAS) Resources

6.Other Resources

i.Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers Database

ii.University of Minnesota Human Rights Centre and Library Library

iii.Netherlands Institute of Human Rights

iv.Commonwealth Human Rights Case Law Database

v.International Committee of the Red Cross Database of International Humanitarian Law

vi.LRWC Resources

1.Universal Human Rights Index

Links:

The Universal Human Rights Index (Index) offers instant access to objective and comprehensive information on human rights situations around the world.The Index is the only online tool compiling recommendations from the treaty bodies, the special procedures and the Universal Periodic Review. Users can access and search treaty body, special procedures and UPR recommendations through 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.

By clicking on theadvanced searchlink it is possible to refine searches and make search results more precise by:

combining criteria (e.g. searching for several countries, bodies or rights at the same time);
combining keywords;
using ‘affected persons’ as a search criterion;
searching documents according to the year they were published; and,
searching documents by symbol.

NB: Users should distinguish recommendations coming from:

a)TheTreaty Bodiesand theSpecial Procedures,which areexperts or expert bodiesthat adopt their own recommendations; and,

b)TheUniversal Periodic Review,which is aninter-governmental mechanism, where all Member States are engaging in a peer review in the Human Rights Council. Recommendations made by Member States may be accepted or not by the State under review.

i.UN Treaty Body Jurisprudence

Links:

Use this database to search decisions of United Nations Treaty Bodies only. This database provides easy access to jurisprudence emanating from the United Nations Treaty Bodies which receive and consider complaints from individuals. This includes the following:

the Human Rights Committee (CCPR),
the Committee against Torture (CAT),
the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),
the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD),
the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD),
the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED),
the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), and,
the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Search Tips:

Filter by “Body” to search decisions made under particular international instruments.
Filter by “Article” to search decisions that involve particular treaty provisions.
Pay attention to “Type of Decision” in the search results. You will generally want to filter for “Adoption of Views,” as those are decisions in which the Treaty Body has ruled on the merits of the claim in relation to the treaty.
Also note: even if the decision is an “Adoption of Views,” the claim under the provision which is relevant to you might have been found inadmissible. Always read the admissibility section before proceeding to the discussion of the merits.
Including a Keyword can be useful to narrow down results if your initial search produces too many.
After you have found search results
Click a decision, and a window will appear listing the formats and languages in which the decision is available. If available, HTML format is the most convenient to access.
If the database does not have a copy of the decision, search the symbols (EG. CCPR/C/53/D/514/1992) in Google – the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library will generally have a copy.
If you need to refine your search results, click “Modify Search” and use the relevant filters to make your search more precise.
To find relevant language in decisions:
Recent decisions will have broken the decision into subsections. Discussion below “Issues and proceedings before the Committee” is the Treaty Body’s consideration and ruling on the claim.
You can use your search function (Ctrl+F) to search for the particular treaty provision(s) for which you are searching.
Making Notes
Take note of the Symbol, the Date of the Adoption of Views, and the number of the paragraph in which the language is found.

2.Ratifications of UN Human Rights Treaties- Current List of Parties and Signatories to UN Treaties

Links:

- (Bayefsky - May be out of date)
(UN Treaty Status)
(UN Treaty Collection)
Google search: Treaty Name Ratification Status (+ Country if relevant)

Current List of Parties and Signatories to UN Treaties

Search by state, category, or treaty (Bayefsky – May be out of date)

Ratification, Accession, and Signature

Signatories to a Treaty

Signature constitutes a preliminary endorsement of the treaty. Signing the instrument does not create a binding legal obligation but does demonstrate the State’s intent to examine the treaty domestically and consider ratifying it. While signing does not commit a State to ratification, it does oblige the State to refrain from acts that would defeat or undermine the treaty’s objective and purpose.

Parties to a Treaty

Ratification or accession signifies an agreement to be legally bound by the terms of the treaty. Accession has the same legal effect as ratification, although the procedures differ. Most commonly, countries that are promoting the treaty sign shortly after it has been adopted. They then ratify it when all of their domestically required legal procedures have been fulfilled. Other States may begin with the domestic approval process and accede to the treaty once their domestic procedures have been completed, without signing the treaty first.

Source:

Letters and other communications including memos should use the term that is relevant to the country, e.g. “… ICCPR, to which Canada acceded in 1976,” or “ICCPR, which Iran ratified in 1975.” (State ratification, accession or signature of the ICCPR, see

3.Other UN Instruments

Some United Nations instruments that may be useful are:

Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary
Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment
Convention Against Torture (CAT)
Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
International Covenant to Eliminate All Forms of Racism (CERD)
Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Execution
Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
The Declaration on Human Rights Defenders
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples(UNDRIP)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

4.The European Court of Human Rights Decisions Database

Links:

Website of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)
Case-law Database (HUDOC) of the ECHR
FAQ about the HUDOC Database
News feed (“headlines, summaries and links to related content on the Internet site”)

Information on the Court of the Registry
Library of general human rights literature and items on human rights systems
Thematic Factsheets on important cases and pending hearings, and
Country Profiles.

The ECHR hears complaints from individuals living in any of the member states of the Council of Europe about violations of the European Convention of Human Rights. The Council of Europe is one of the continent's oldest political organizations, founded in 1949. It has 47 member countries.

Case-Law Search Tips:

Use the filters on the left side bar to sort by relevant Article of the European Convention on Human Rights
Most relevant decision type are “Judgment (Merits and Just Satisfaction),” but “Judgment (Interpretation),” may also be useful.

5.Organization of American States (OAS) Resources

Links:

OAS Database to search the decisions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights by date.
Note: There is no search function, so you will have to find reference to the content of the case elsewhere, and then find it here.
Loyola Law School Inter-American Court of Human Rights Project Database and Journal
Use the “Advanced Search” to search for decisions under the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights; the Inter-American Convention On The Prevention, Punishment And Eradication Of Violence Against Women; the Inter-American Convention To Prevent And Punish Torture; and Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons
Often will provide summaries of cases, which are useful to determine if the case is relevant to your search objective
Once you have identified a case here, refer to the OASdatabase to find the full text of the case.

OAS Instruments

American Convention on Human Rights, 1978 (for States that are bound by it)
American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, 1948 (for OAS member States that have not ratified the American Convention on Human Rights, including Canada and the USA)
Other Treaties and Agreements

Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Inter-American Court of Human Rights

6.Other Resources

i.Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers Database

Links:

The UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers provide a description of international norms relating to the key aspects of the right to independent counsel and the right of lawyers to conduct their professional duties free from interference.

Lawyers for Lawyers has developed a comprehensive search engine with access to international and regional reports and decisions on the interpretation, application and violations of the principles. The database allows users to search by keyword, organization, country, document type, principle, or document number.

ii.University of Minnesota Human Rights Centre and Library Library

Links:

University of Minnesota Human Rights Library
University of Minnesota Human Rights Center

University of Minnesota Human Rights Center
The University of Minnesota Human Rights Center trains and assists the work of human rights professionals and volunteers through five primary programs:

Applied Human Rights Research;
Educational Tools;
Upper Midwest Human Rights Fellowship Program,Humphrey Human Rights and Law Fellowships, and otherField/Training Opportunities;
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library; and
Learning Communities and Partnerships.

University of Minnesota Human Rights Library

The University of Minnesota Human Rights Libraryhouses one of the largest collections of more than sixty thousand core human rights documents, including several hundredhuman rights treatiesand other primary international human rights instruments. The site also provides access to more than four thousandslinksand a uniquesearch devicefor multiple human rights sites. This comprehensive research tool is accessed by more than a 250,000 students, scholars, educators, and human rights advocates monthly fromover 150 countriesaround the world. Documents are available in nine languages -Arabic,Chinese,English,French,Japanese,Korean,Russian,Spanish,andSwedish.

iii.Netherlands Institute of Human Rights

Links:

Netherlands Institute of Human Rights

The Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) has several databases in which its collection of documentation is made accessible to the public.

SIM Library Section (Publications)
Books – contains bibliographic descriptions of books and reports, and summaries of articles from a limited selection of periodicals
PhD Dissertations
SIM Newsletters
SIM Special Articles

iv.Commonwealth Human Rights Case Law Database

Links:

Commonwealth Human Rights Case Law Database,provides free access to over 1,700 case summaries.

As Ireland and the USA host common law legal systems, cases from these jurisdictions have also been included in CommonwealthNet. The International Human Rights Index contains other 1,100 human rights cases. The databases contain human rights decisions from national courts and international courts and tribunals. Case summaries are listed in chronological order.

v.International Committee of the Red Cross Database of Customary International Humanitarian Law

Links:

This resource analyzes issues in international humanitarian law in order to establish what rules of customary international law can be found on the basis of State practice and opinio juris in relation to these practices.

Note: This is international humanitarian law, not international human rights law. The rules outlined in this study may not be applicable in contexts outside of international armed conflict. Be careful when attempting to apply these rules to human rights violations more broadly.

From the Introduction:

“International humanitarian law has its origins in the customary practices of armies as they developed over the ages and on all continents. The ‘laws and customs of war’, as this branch of international law has traditionally been called, was not applied by all armies, and not necessarily vis-à-vis all enemies, nor were all the rules the same. However, the pattern that could typically be found was restraint of behaviour vis-à-vis combatants and civilians, primarily based on the concept of the soldier’s honour. The content of the rules generally included the prohibition of behaviour that was considered unnecessarily cruel or dishonourable, and was not only developed by the armies themselves, but was also influenced by the writings of religious leaders.

[. . .]

International humanitarian treaty law is well developed and covers a wide variety of aspects of warfare, offering protection to victims of war and limiting permissible means and methods of warfare,”

vi.Other Online Databases

● American Society of International Law (ASIL)—

— ASIL’s Electronic Information System for International Law—

EISIL contains a collection of primary materials, authoritative websites and research guides to international law organized by area of law.

— ASIL’s Electronic Resources Guide (ERG)

ERG is a comprehensive, up-to-date research guide organized by area of law.

● GlobaLex—published by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU’s School of Law—

— Access to research guides for different topics in international law, such as environmental law, tax law, refugee law, etc.

● Georgetown Law Library’s Research Guides

—Specific research guides for discrete topics of international law, such as international anti-corruption, international environmental law, international trade law, etc.

● UBC’s Law Library has an online research guide for international law—

— Easy access to the various sources of international law with a brief overview of each source.

● Library of Congress – Guide to Law Online: International—

— Access to a number of sources and legal guides prepared by other organizations, and to the searchable Global Legal Information Catalog. Although not all sources are full-text accessible, the catalog helps to narrow and identify sources you may be able to find as open-source elsewhere.

● Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at Cambridge University—

— Access to topical publications and lecture transcripts.

● Peace Palace Library—

— Access to guides on public international law (generally, but also on specific topics such as international labour law and environmental law), international criminal law, economic and financial law, individual and group rights (human rights, migration, refugees), the law of war, and private international law (intellectual property, international family law, international contracts)

vi.vii.LRWC Resources

The LRWC website has links to numerous other resources including tools developed by the UN, the International Labour Organization and the Inter-American Human Rights System. The LIBRARY section of the LRWC website, contains summaries of international human rights law that can be accessed sand used. The LIBRARY section on International Law – Know Your Rights contains many LRWC publications about on aspects of international human rights law relating toin advocacy, fair trial and rights due process rights, the integrity of legal systems and the rule of law. All LRWC publications are published without copyright to ensure that readers are free to copy, distribute, and display LRWC publications and to make derivative works, with appropriate credit given to LRWC. The LIBRARY section on UN Participation contains presentations by LRWC, alone and jointly with other civil society organizations to UN bodies including: oral and written statements to the UN Human Rights Council; Petitions to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; Reports to treaty monitoring bodies including the Human Rights Committee, the Committee against Torture and the Committee to End Discrimination against Women; Report on Universal Periodic Review; Reports to Special Mandate Holders. The LIBRARY section on Amicus Briefs contains submissions made to courts in Canada, Cambodia, Turkey, Viet Nam and Thailand and amicus briefs to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.

encourage the free use and UN Participation contains CThe country summaries of a country’s membership in international organizations and ratification of international human rights treaties is available to Monitors and letter writers. These summaries indicates some of the standards that are binding on each particular countryies. These instruments and other statements of principle that are key to advocacy rights are accessible through the international law section of the LRWC website.

International Human Rights laws and standards that may be relevant:

The LRWC website contains information about international human rights systems with links to the treaties and other sources of international law within each system including:

United Nations human rights system
Inter-American human rights system of the Organization of American States
European human rights system of the Council of Europe
African human rights system
ASEAN human rights system
Commonwealth human rights instruments