human rights

Human rights awareness month case map

Online article and map of 50 landmark human rights cases compiled by John Louth, who is Editor-in-Chief of Academic Law Books, Journals, and Online at Oxford University Press. The map is made freely available on the OUP website. Each case has a brief description and a link to a related article or report on the case. The aim is to include cases showing the “variety of international, regional, and national mechanisms and fora for adjudicating human rights claims, and the range of rights that have been recognized.”

Public Law for Everyone

Blog by Mark Elliott, Reader in Public Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge and Legal Adviser to the House of Lords Constitution Committee. Posts discuss current issues in the field of public law, including constitutional law, judicial review, parliamentary sovereignty and human rights. Longer ‘1000 words’ pieces examine key aspects of public law, such as devolution. The blog is intended for practising lawyers as well as law students.

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).

Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine

The FFLM is a UK charity set up to develop and maintain the highest possible standards of competence and professional integrity in forensic and legal medicine. The FFLM covers professionals working in three related disciplines: forensic medical practitioners (forensic physicians, forensic pathologists, sexual assault examiners, and child physical and sexual assault examiners, forensic nurses and paramedics); medico-legal advisers; and medically qualified coroners. The website provides free access to some of the FFLM publications as well as providing information on news and events.

Inter-American Court of Human Rights Database

Searchable summaries of Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) decisions, in English. Detailed summaries are available for some cases, covering the facts, procedural history, merits, and state compliance with the judgment; for other cases only a short abstract is provided. The database can be searched by case name, country, topic, treaty article and other criteria. It is an initiative of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. (For full IACHR judgments, in Spanish, see the Court’s own website.)

Head of Legal

Blog by law lecturer, consultant and non-practising barrister Carl Gardner, who is based in London. Provides commentary on legal developments in their political and social context, mainly focusing on public, constitutional, human rights and European law.

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.

AIRE Centre

Website of the AIRE Centre, an organisation providing information on and promoting awareness of European law rights. The charity takes cases to the European Court of Human Rights, provides legal advice to individuals and voluntary sector lawyers and advisors. The site describes the work undertaken in the areas of human trafficking, family law, prisoners’ rights, discrimination, international protection and fair trial. A selection of publications by AIRE is made freely available to download from the site.

Searching through Systems: Research Guide for UN Criminal Tribunals

Online guide to international criminal tribunals written by Anthony Bestafka-Cruz who is a law student at University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt) and Managing Editor for the Berkeley Journal of International Law. The guide was published in 2012 (and updated by Devan Orr in 2024) on the Globalex website and made freely available by the Hauser Global Law School at the New York University School of Law.

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