International Inter-Governmental & Non-Governmental Organizations: Human Rights

This guide is designed as a starting point, highlighting the top recommended resources for research in Human Rights.

Website for the University of Washington's Center for Human Rights

"The European Court of Human Rights is an international court set up in 1959. It rules on individual or State applications alleging violations of the civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights. Since 1998 it has sat as a full-time court and individuals can apply to it directly."

Excellent collection of human rights treaties and conventions plus links to UN and International NGO websites.

(The UN is an IGO.) Use this site to find information and resources relating to human rights and the United Nations.

An excellent research guide provided by the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library.

Find full text of publications of UN human rights treaty bodies here

"This site provides access to United Nations documentation related to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This website presents documents in chronological order, arranged according to the various bodies that met to discuss, draft and re-draft the Declaration. There are also brief biographic notes for the members of the Drafting Committee formed by the UN Commission on Human Rights."

"FMR supports the interests and information needs of those responding to crises that cause displacement; publicises research that is relevant to these interests and needs; and aims to support learning, training, advocacy, policymaking and research."

"The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), established in 1998 by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), is the leading international body monitoring conflict-induced internal displacement worldwide."

An international NGO, documentation centre, and publishing house which has published since 1997 - For the Record [year]: The UN Human Rights System - containing relevant UN texts by country.

Use for law texts, by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Includes the so called "Red Cross or Geneva Treaties/Conventions on War."

"The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols are international treaties that contain the most important rules limiting the barbarity of war. They protect people who do not take part in the fighting (civilians, medics, aid workers) and those who can no longer fight (wounded, sick and shipwrecked troops, prisoners of war)."

A free-of-charge online service provided by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It compiles international texts and domestic legislation in the OSCE region (55 countries located in the Caucasus, Central Asia, Europe and North America) dealing with the rule of law and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms." This database is very much Under Construction but can be useful.

"A coalition of experts and representatives from religious and other life-stance communities, academia, NGOs, international organisations and civil society."

By Christopher C. Dykes, University of Houston Law Center’s O’Quinn Law Library.

"A democratic, international membership organization. Its members are indigenous peoples, occupied nations, minorities and independent states or territories who have joined together to protect their human and cultural rights, preserve their environments, and to find non-violent solutions to conflicts which affect them. UNPO provides a legitimate and established international forum for member aspirations and assists its members in effective participation at an international level."

The report of the ICISS, "The Responsibility to Protect, is the culmination of twelve months of intensive research, worldwide consultations and deliberation." [FULL TEXT]

"The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946. The Court’s role is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies."

"The International Criminal Court (ICC), governed by the Rome Statute, is the first permanent, treaty based, international criminal court established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community."

"IDLO provides developing countries, countries in economic transition and those emerging from armed conflict with the resources, tools and professional skills to establish or strengthen the rule of law and good governance practices. IDLO works with judicial and legal professionals, institutions, governmental and non-governmental organizations toward achieving five main strategic objectives that contribute directly to development."

Compiled by the Templeman Library, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom. A far reaching topical international law resource, with some extra emphasis on the law of the UK, other European Countries, and the European Union.

Authored by Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Foreign and International Law Librarian and Lecturer in Law University of Chicago Law School, D'Angelo Law Library, an excellent resource.

Provides extensive key legal resources, both for the United States and elsewhere.

Provides extensive key legal resources, both for the United States and elsewhere.