Human Rights

Truth Commission Digital Collection

The Truth Commission Digital Collection forms part of the Margarita S. Studemeister Digital Library in International Conflict Management at the United States Institute of Peace. There are profiles of truth commissions and commissions of inquiry set up in different countries with background information, details of members, links to establishing documents and each commission's final reports and findings. Sources of information for each profile are also given.

A Brief Introduction to the Right to Privacy – An International Legal Perspective

Online guide to the right to privacy written by Md. Toriqul Islam who is research fellow at the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya in Malaysia. The guide was published in 2022 on the Globalex website and made freely available by the Hauser Global Law School Program at the New York University School of Law. The guide looks at the history, meaning and value of privacy and international and regional legal instruments which have privacy provisions including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the OECD Privacy Framework and the ASEAN Framework on Personal Data Protection.

Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP)

The Council of Europe’s HELP programme provides free online training for lawyers, prosecutors and the judiciary in the CoE member states, with the aim of enhancing the national implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights; it also provides training on the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and European Social Charter (‘HELP in the EU’), as well as carrying out work with academia (‘HELP in Universities’). The HELP website has an e-learning platform and a catalogue of courses.

South African Human Rights Commission

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is a national body whose role is to protect human rights in South Africa by raising awareness and monitoring observance of human rights issues. The SAHRC also deals with complaints. Focus areas include children’s rights, the disabled and older people along with access to justice, housing, basic services and healthcare.

Researching the Right to Housing

Online guide to resources on housing rights written by S M Atia Naznin who is a lecturer at the School of Law, BRAC University, in Bangladesh. The guide was published in 2018 (and updated in 2024) on the Globalex website and made freely available by the Hauser Global Law School Program at the New York University School of Law. The author provides an introduction and links to relevant sections of the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights along with other related international and regional  instruments.

Equality Law in Europe: A New Generation

Equality Law in Europe is a legal research project by researchers at the Academy of European Law at the European University Institute. The aim of the project is to provide information about using European equality law, including details of how to make a claim to equal treatment. The project researchers have compiled a database of discrimination cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decided between 1970-2018, which is available on its website. Cases are presented on an Excel spreadsheet and include the date, case number and party name.

The World’s Abortion Laws

Continually-updated interactive map of global abortion laws, produced by the Center for Reproductive Rights, a non-profit legal advocacy organisation based in the United States. The map is colour-coded to show how restrictive or liberal each jurisdiction’s abortion regime is, and further details are available when users click on a country. The ‘In Focus’ feature provides the text of abortion provisions for 56 key jurisdictions. The map is downloadabe in pdf format. The interactive version has a search facility and a country comparison tool.

Law & Religion UK

The Law and Religion UK blog was founded in 2012 as a platform for “exploration of the interactions between law and religion, together with the associated human rights issues”, with a focus on the United Kingdom. The blog is by Frank Cranmer, parliamentary and synod editor of the Ecclesiastical Law Journal and one of the casenotes editors of Law & Justice, and David Pocklington, a former columnist for Environmental Law and Management with an LLM in canon law. The blog has an archive searchable by date, and the top posts are listed on the home page along with recent posts.

Jurisprudence (OHCHR)

Database of all cases decided by UN human rights treaty bodies: 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).

Global Health and Human Rights Database

Free database of cases, constitutions and international legal instruments concerning the law of health and human rights around the world, provided by Lawyers Collective, an Indian NGO, and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, Washington DC. Simple and advanced search facilities are available, or the database can be browsed by criteria such as health topic, human right or country. The cases are from municipal and international courts, as well as UN committees.
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