Research Guides
Access to Information as a Human Right: Research Suggestions
Databases
- Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
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Search the most comprehensive set of declassified government documents covering U.S. foreign involvement from post-World War II through the 21st century. Continues to add content through ongoing FOIA requests. - Human Rights Documents This link opens in a new window
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Wide variety of documents from hundreds of non-governmental organizations concerned with human rights and social justice around the world. - PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
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A citation index providing selective coverage on issues of public policy, gathered from a wide variety of international sources. - Human Rights Studies Online This link opens in a new window
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A multimedia collection of primary and secondary resources including documentary films, providing context, analysis, interpretation and documentation concerning major global human rights issues of the 20th and 21st centuries. - Hein Online This link opens in a new window
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Digitized legal journals, reviews, U.S. government documents, regulations, laws, and treaties. - U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
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Selected previously-classified government documents. 1900-2022.
- FOIA Electronic Reading Rooms, (CIA)Most U.S. agencies have electronic reading rooms, which are searchable databases that provide access to FOIA documents. Use the search terms "electronic reading room" + the federal department of interest to find a reading room. Search the The FBI's FOIA Electronic Reading Room, known as "The Vault".
- Digital Archive of the Guatemalan National Police Historical ArchiveA database of over 10 million scanned images from the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive (AHPN) covering 1870-1997
- The Yellow BookA secret Salvadoran military document that was used to target Salvadoran citizens. It is the first confidential document from the Salvadoran military to be made public. Downloadable as a PDF or Excel document.
Publications
- 40 Years of FOIA, 20 Years of Delay; Oldest Pending FOIA Requests Date Back to the 1980’sPDF. Tom Blanton and Meredith Fuchs. National Security Archive, July 2, 2007.
- Access to Government Information In the United States: A PrimerPDF. Wendy Ginsberg, Congressional Research Service, January 16, 2013.
- Access to Information as a Human RightE-Book (Print copy on order). Cheryl Ann Bishop, 2001.
- Access to Information as a Human Right in the Case Law of the European Court of Human RightsPäivi Tiilikka, Journal of Media Law, July 2013
- Comparative Study of Specialized Supervisory and Enforcement Bodies for Access to Public Information in the HemispherePress Release. Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Organization of American States, 2015.
- Exploring the Liberal Genealogy and the Changing Praxis of the Right of Access to Information: Towards an Egalitarian RealisationRichard Calland, Theoria; A Journal of Social & Political Theory, September 2014.
- Freedom of Information Act: Key Website is Generally Reliable, but Action Is Needed to Ensure Completeness of Its ReportsValerie C. Melvin, United States Government Accountability Office, June 2012.
- Freedom of Information and Openness: Fundamental Human Rights?Patrick Birkinshaw, Administrative Law Review, Winter 2006.
- Media Freedom as a Fundamental RightJan Oster, Cambridge University Press, 2015.
- Monitoring Access to Information from the Perspective of Human Rights IndicatorsLaura Pautassi, Sur-International Journal on Human Rights.
- The Right to Information in International Human Rights LawMaeve Mcdonagh, Human Rights Law Review, 2013
Websites & Documentaries
- Human Rights InternetHRI is a leader in providing access to documentation produced by human rights organizations and disseminating information on human rights issues around the world. HRI produces the Human Rights Documents Online database.
- Torturing DemocracyThe detailed story of how torture became acceptable during the Bush presidency through the uncovering of hundreds of secret memos and decisions, and how countless FOIA requests and other sources of information were finally made accessible. The goal has now expanded to become “the online institutional memory for essential evidence of torture…in connection with the conduct of hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in the broader context of the ‘global war on terror.’”
- WikiLeaksA not-for-profit media organization that provides an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information.
- God Alone Was with Us: the Massacre of Santa CruzEl Salvador documentary produced by the Center for Human Rights, University of Washington, 2014.
- Icelandic Grassroots Innovation to LegislationA video interview with Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Icelandic politician, writer and activist, where she describes the ideological background of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative
- Lex SnowdenA video interview with Ville Oksanen talking about the background and goals of the Lex Snowden initiative and the need to strengthen users’ rights and protection on the Internet .
El Salvadoran Billboard
A reminder of a massacre that took place during the Salvadoran Civil War. The mural's inscription reads: "They tore out the flower, but the roots are returning among us."