Useful Research Links

• United Nations Resources
  • Treaty Based Bodies
  • UN Charter Based Bodies
  • Other UN Based Bodies
  • Treaties/Declarations
  • Other Helpful UN Sites
• Regional Human Rights Treaties/Organizations
• Comprehensive Databases
• Non-Governmental Organizations

United Nations Homepage

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

United Nations' Division for the Advancement of Women

Treaty Based Bodies-

• Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
• Human Rights Committee
• Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• Committee on the Rights of the Child
• Committee Against Torture
• Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

UN Charter Based Bodies-

• Commission on Human Rights
• Human Rights Council (formerly the Commission on Human Rights)
  • Background Information: The Human Rights Council replaced the Commission on

  Human Rights via a Security Council Resolution on March 15th, 2006. The HRC held

  its initial meeting on June 18th, 2007.

• United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

       What is it?:

                      The United Nations charter established ECOSOC  as the principal organ to

                      coordinate economic, social, and related work of the fourteen UN specialized

                      agencies, functional commissions and five regional commissions.

• Commission on the Status of Women

Other UN Based Bodies-

• International Labour Organization
  • ILOLEX

What is it?: ILOLEX is a trilingual database containing ILO Conventions and Recommendations,

ratification information, comments of the Committee of Experts and the Committee

on Freedom of Association, representations, complaints, interpretations, General

Surveys, and numerous related documents.

• World Health Organization
• Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

• Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
  • Members: UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, ILO, UNESCO,

  WHO, World Bank

Treaties/Declarations-

• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)- scroll down

       to see the text of the convention

• CEDAW Optional Protocol
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

• ICCPR Optional Protocol
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
  • ICESCR Optional Protocol- For

current ratification status, click here, and scroll down to treaty 3a.

• Universal Declaration on Human Rights
• Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women
• Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Convention Against Torture

Other Helpful UN Sites-

• Ratification Status of International Human Rights Treaties
• United Nations Official Document System- Click on Welcome or your native language

       to access the documents.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Regional Human Rights Treaties and Organizations

The African Union

• African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (Banjul Charter)   

       (click on welcome to enter site)

• Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in

       Africa

• African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
• Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an

       African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights

• African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights

Council of Europe

• European Convention on Human Rights
• European Court of Human Rights Search Portal

 

Europa - The European Union Online

• The European Parliament
• Court of Justice of the European Communities- (Click on the En link for English on

       the bottom to enter the site)

 

Organization of American States

• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
  • Rights of the Child in the Inter-American Human Rights System, 2nd Edition
  • Rights of Women in Haiti to Be Free from Violence Discrimination
  • Report on the Rights of Women in Chile: Equality in the Family, Labor and

Political Spheres

• Inter-American Court on Human Rights

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Comprehensive Databases

Bayefsky.com (The United Nations Human Rights Treaties)

University of Minnesota's Human Rights Library

• Human Rights Treaties and Other Instruments
• Regional Materials

World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII)

Religious Legal Systems in Comparative Law: A Guide to Introductory Research

Transnational and Comparative Family Law: Harmonization and Implementation

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Non-Governmental Organizations

 

ACLU Women's Rights Project

Amnesty International - Women's Human Rights

Center for Reproductive Rights

Gender Law Library (Sponsored by the International Finance Commission and the World Bank)

Human Rights First (Formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights)

Human Rights Watch - Women's Human Rights

Global Rights.org (Formerly known as International Human Rights Law Group)

Global Justice Center

International Women's Rights Action Watch

• Asia Pacific office

Physicians for Human Rights

Association for Women Rights in Development (AWID) (formerly known as Women's Human

Rights Net)

Women for Women's Human Rights (WWHR) - New Ways

Women Living Under Muslim Laws