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Research Guides

SIS 495: Task Force - Winter 2011: Task Force M

Research and writing resources for winter quarter Jackson School Task Force projects.

Achieving Economic, Social and Cultural Rights through ICESCR

SANJEEV KHAGRAM  T TH   2:30-4:20

The broad policy area this Task Force will focus on is “how can MAR (maximum available resources), PR (progressive realization), and ND (non-discrimination) be more explicitly operationalized in terms of government budgets?” The ultimate goal of the TF is to assist a major global civil society network – International Budget Partners – to get the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to adopt a general comment on MAR, PR and ND in terms of government budgets.

Article Databases

The following databases may be particularly useful for research on efforts to make ICESCR goals achievable.  Some keyword search suggestions include "cultural rights," "International Budget Partners," ICESCR, "civil society," "economic rights," "social rights," "maximum available resources, "progressive realization" and "non-discrimination."  Quote marks usually assist in most databases when searching multi-word phrases.

EconLit Primary database for citations, abstracts and full texts for scholarly articles, books, dissertations, working papers, etc. in the field of economics.

Ideas Very large open access bibliographic database dedicated to research in Economics.  The majority of materials are downloadable.

JSTOR A multi-disciplinary database of full text scholarly journal articles.  Includes more journals and has deeper backfiles of articles than Project Muse, but not always the most recently published works.

PAIS International (Public Affairs International Service) The pre-eminent citation index for scholarship on policy and public affairs.  PAIS brings together scholarly and popular press articles, book chapters, government reports and other sources.  To check for availability of full texts for citations, use

Project Muse A multi-disciplinary database of full text scholarly journal articles.  Click on the author's name for information about his/her credentials, and examine the often extensive bibliographies for citations to primary sources, etc. For instance, Catarina de Albuquerque's article "Chronicle of an Announced Birth: the Coming into Life of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights---the Missing Piece of the International Bill of Human Rights," in Human Rights Quarterly, gives an extensive history of ICESCR and the challenges it has faced.

Background and Country Information

Text of International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) .

United Nations Background Note: "The Challenge of Human Rights and Cultural Diversity"

Country Information:

Foreign Governments web resources provided by Northwestern University Library.

Foreign Information by Country web resources provided by University of Colorado Libraries.


For additional government information in the UW Libraries and beyond, see the
Government Publications Research Guide.

Policy Sources

How to find UN publications:
United Nations Documentation: Research Guide by the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Library, the main UN library.

United Nations handbook, 1983- to the present. [JX1977 .N48a, Latest edition in Suzzallo Ground Floor Reference; Earlier editions in GovPub Stacks]. An excellent, annual guide to the UN and it's many bodies.

Documents (of the United Nations). Primary UN full text publications are found here. Also see the easy search version of the Official Documents System Search (ODS) which includes a broader selection of full text publications from approx. 1993 forward. Go here for the ODS version which allows more complex searches [NOTE: You don't need to use the login, plus go to Advanced Search].

The UW Libraries, Government Publications is a Depository Library for United Nations documents. We have a large collection of UN publications. Most UN publications are not in the UW Catalogs.

Indexes/Catalogs for finding UN publications. [Use to access In Print, Microfiche, and/or Full Text]:

AccessUN A general, easy to use index to finding UN publications' call numbers. Some Full Text is available.

UNBISNET United Nations Bibliographic Information System, by the UN main library. ""Bibliographic Records" can be difficult to use, but can frequently provide Full Text of UN documents. Also, don't miss the "Voting Records" and "Index to Speeches" features.

More UN Information:

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, of the UN, Economic and Social Council.
In print the Committee annual report is Supplement no. 2 of the Official Records of the UN Economic and Social Council [HC59 .A193 GovPub Stacks] NOTE: 2002 - 2009 are on the Suzzallo Ground Floor Reference shelves, Gov Pubs section, behind the GovPubs/Maps/Microforms Newspapers Help Desk.
Index to proceedings of the Economic and Social Council, [HC59 .A173, GovPub Reference]

Other CESCR documents are under the UN Call Number: E/C.12/ [GovPub U.N. Stacks]. Find them in Government Publications, Ground Fl. Suzzallo Library. Online see Official Documents System Search (ODS).

Other International Inter-Governmental Organizations:

International Monetary Fund Search this site for "cultural rights" as one way to find official IMF concerns about the goals of ICESCR and the International Budget Partnership.

World Bank Civil Society Site Recognizing the significant growth and impact of civil societies and CS organizations, this page provides information concrning the World Bank its "evolving relationship" with the civil society movement.

World Trade Organization The WTO is the only global international organization which deals with the rules of trade among nations.

For additional government information in the UW Libraries and beyond, see the
Government Publications Research Guide.

Current News

Access World News  One of the largest aggregated full text news databases, Access World News contains over ten years of current and retrospective news articles. Includes news stories, editorial and opinion pieces from over two thousand U.S. and international newspapers.

Factiva An excellent source for global business, economic and financial news, it includes full text materials from a wide range of newspapers, company newsletters, press releases, television news transcripts, etc.Be sure to adjust the date limitation unless you only want articles published within the last three months.

Lexis Nexis The most extensive full text news and legal database available through the UW Libraries.  Includes major  world news publications,  newspapers, wire service transcripts, blogs, broadcast transcripts, etc.  Very current depending on source, some backfiles 20+ years deep.

World News Connection An effective way to research non-U.S. media sources.  Full text articles selected by the Open Source Center (U.S. government news gathering organization) whose analysts collect timely and pertinent open-source materials.

Non Profit Organizations

Listed here are just a few of the major non profit organizations working for social justice and human rights.

Amnesty International AI maintains an "economic, social and cultural rights" page.

Center for Economic and Social Rights The first non profit organization founded specifically to concentrate on social, economic and cultural rights, its tag line is  "Social Justice through Human Rights.  Operating on a global scale CESR has offices around the world, and built the ESCR-Network (see below).

ESCR-Network  (International Network for Economic, Social & Cultural Righsts) Non profit dedicated to creating a link between human rights and social justice, this global movement works collaboratively with a broad range of other non profit groups to facilitate education, build strategic advocacy activities and share information.

Human Rights Watch This activist organization takes a special interest in economic, social and cultural rights, which earns its own special topics section (ESC Rights) on the HRW website.

International Budget Partnership Collaborates with civil societies around the world to analyze and influence public budgets in order to reduce poverty and improve the quality of governance.  This is a key site with information directly pertinent to the task force.  See results of the 2010 Open Budget Survey here.

International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) The International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) operates as an umbrella organisation for the external government audit community. For more than 50 years it has provided an institutionalised framework for supreme audit institutions to promote development and transfer of knowledge, improve government auditing worldwide and enhance professional capacities, standing and influence of member SAIs in their respective countries.

Oxfam International An international confederation of 14 organizations, including the United Nations, working in 99 countries.  Its primary goal is to end poverty and injustice.

Need help?

Glenda Pearson, Human Rights Librarian

pearson@u.washington.edu

Dave Maack, Head Government Publications Librarian

maack@u.washington.edu

Amanda Hornby, Geography Librarian

hornbya@u.washington.edu

How do I find out if the article I need is online?

thumbnail of known citation video Determine if the article you need is available to you online through our Electronic Journals web page. | Time - 01:35 | Transcript | Play Video