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International Human Rights Research
Margaret ClarkReference Librarian
FSU College of Law Research CenterFebruary, 2010
What we’ll cover…
United Nations Treaties Judicial decisions Country reports Other research tools
Searching by committee
CHARTER DOCUMENT SEARCH
Searching by country
Searching by country and subject
TREATY BODY DATABASE
When researching the U.N.:
Documents may be more political than legalSpeechesStatementsLetters by gov’t representatives
Most important for legal researchStudies and reportsTreaties, resolutions, judgments
United NationsResearch Strategies Get overview of U.N.’s involvement with your
topic during the last few years. What bodies are involved? What documents produced? What are the document symbols?
Become familiar with bodies dealing with your topic.
Find and study any resolutions 1st pars. cite to earlier resolutions Final pars. announce a plan Are there any studies or reports cited?
United Nations Databases OHCHR Library UN BISnet UN Official Document System (ODS)
TREATIES
Judicial Decisions
International Bodies
ICJ UN treaty bodies Tribunals and
international courts Regional bodies
National Courts
Supreme courts Appellate courts
Tools for locating judicial decisions
Secondary Sources Court Sites Reporters Digests UN Treaty Databases
Tools for locating judicial decisions
Secondary Sources
Tools for locating judicial decisions
Secondary Sources
Tools for locating judicial decisions
Int’l Human Rights Reporter Human Rights Law Journal International Legal Materials
Case Reporters -- Print
Case Reporters -- Online
International Legal Materials Human Rights Cases (Lexis)
Tools for locating judicial decisions
Fee-based Oxford Reports on International Law International Law ReportsFree HUDOC World Court Digests
Digests
Browse
Search
Headnotes and Analysis
Tools for locating judicial decisions
International Law Reports (ILR) In print only !! full text opinions in EnglishBest source for finding recent decisionsBest source for older decisions (1919 to
present)KZ 199.I58 (1st floor of Library)
Tools for locating judicial decisions
ILR– Index VolumesTreaty Index (treaties referred to in decisions
reported in ILR)By dateBy subjectBy title
Case Index (includes decisions of national court decisions and international tribunals)AlphabeticallyJurisdiction
International Law ReportsTreaty Index
Tools for locating judicial decisions
Treaty Body Document Search (UN)Bayefsky.com U. Minnesota’s Human Rights Library
UN Treaty Body Tools
Judicial Decisions – Treaty body database
Judicial Decisions – Bayefsky.com
Judicial decisions – Treaty bodies
Jurisprudence of the treaty bodies :“Views” (admissibility and on merits)“Decisions” (determinations of inadmissibility)“Opinions” (on the merits)
Annual compilation of all decisions in: Annual report “Report of the Committee…
•Human Rights Watch
•Amnesty International
Independent Experts
•State Reports
•Concluding Observations
Treaty Bodies
•Special Procedures
•Universal Periodic Reviews
Charter Bodies
Country Reports
Specific Web sitesNon-governmental organizationsGovernment – US State Dept; UK Home Office
Collection of Country Reports Online
Independent Experts
• Human Rights Watch• Amnesty International
Tools for locating State Reports, Concluding Observations, Comments
Treaty Body web site U.N. Treaty Body Document Search Bayefsky.com
Treaty Bodies• State Reports• Concluding Observations
Country Reports– Bayefsky.com
• Special Procedures• Universal Periodic Reviews
Charter Bodies
Tools for locating documents of the
Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council OHCHR web site (Countries), recent Charter-based Bodies Document Search (UN) Universal Human Rights Index
• Special Procedures• Universal Periodic Reviews
Charter Bodies
Tools for locating documents of the
Universal Periodic ReviewsUNHCHR web siteUPR.org
Other research tools
Human Rights Documents (FSU materials) Hurisearch (Search engine) Human Rights LibGuide (Research guide)
http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/HumanRights/index.html
Research Guides
Research Guides
