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Concise Guide to Human Rights on the Internet  Concise Guide to Human Rights on the InternetSecond EditionSeptember 1998IntroductionSince this guide was first published two years ago, there has been an explosion of human rights information on the WorldWide Web (web). Not only havemany non-government organizations (NGOs) gotten online and began publishing their materials, but international organizationshave begun to make largeportions of their materials available online, making research much easier than in the past. Academic and legal journals,moreover, have begun to offer at leastsome of their articles in the web as well. The growth of the web, however, has also meant that finding the desired materialsis likely to be more difficult forthose not already acquainted with the major human rights sites. Fortunately, most of the major sites have done a very goodjob of compiling lists of links toother sites with human rights materials, so that using them as starting points is likely to lead you to the material you seek.Those sites and the other toolsdescribed here should help you find you what you need.This updated guide is an attempt to show you how to begin using the Internet to find human rights information. This guideassumes that you already know howto use the basic Internet tools: e-mail and the web. We will also discuss briefly the issue of privacy online. Please notethat the sites and methods discussedhere are by no means exhaustive; in addition, given the nature of the Internet, this guide was out-of-date even before wefinished writing it.It is important to understand that while there is a lot of human rights information on the Internet, it only constitutes asmall fraction of the information availablein the "real world." This means that you will not necessarily find what you are looking for; it may just not be there. Usethe Internet as a way to supplementyour library or field research, but don't expect to be able to use it as your sole source of information. Note: This is a "live" document, and minor changes are made when necessary.Where on the Internet?The Internet has multiple "spaces" where information is stored and exchanged. In addition to the web, there aremailing lists, where people can exchangeinformation and ideas via e-mail, newsgroups, bulletin-boards accessible to everyone with full-Internetaccess where useful information and people aresometimes available, chat rooms, where you can meet with friends to discuss issues or drop in to askquestions, and telnet, which provides access to librarycatalogs and other databases. In addition, much information is still available at ftp (file transferprotocol) and gopher sites; because you can access these siteswith most web browsers (software such as Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, and Opera, which is used to access the web),we will not discuss these sitesindependently.As a general guide, we would recommend that you first look at what's available on the web, or what has been discussed onnewsgroups or mailing lists (you canget the archives of many of these on the web as well), before posing questions to either newsgroups or mailing lists -especially about very common subjects.HR Info on the WebI. What is out there?Among the most common human rights documents online are treaties and conventions, reports on human rights violations onspecific countries, death penaltyinformation, human rights news and actions on behalf of victims of human rights violations. You can also find decisions andreports by international bodiesand tribunals, national legislation and jurisprudence, articles on human rights issues, and issue-specific information (e.g.women's rights, indigenous people'srights). Perhaps surprisingly, there is very little information or discussions as to what human rights are, or otherintroductory materials to human rights andhuman rights law. Academic and legal articles on human rights issues have become more common, but are still comparativelyrare.Most of the human rights material available on line is a few years old at most. Reports and information prior to themid-90s are often hard to find. The UNHigh Commissioner for Human Rights' (UNHCHR) website, for example, has few reports earlier than 1993; Amnesty International'smaterials mostly datefrom 1996. On the other hand, the latest human rights information is often not available on the web either (though it mayhave been distributed through mailinglists), as few organizations have the resources necessary to immediately place all new information on their sites.II. How to find it.This guide will lead you to many of the most useful human rights sites online, but, as said before, they are not the onlyones available, and possibly not the onesyou need either. If the information you're looking for does not appear here, here are a few things you can do:-Go to a site that contains information similar to what you are looking for, and look for a section labeled links. Linksare graphics or highlighted text that willconnect you to another document or website when you click on it. Most sites will link to others containing similarmaterial.-Look at a general index of human rights information. There are many of these available; some are discussed below.-Use a search engine to find it (also discussed below). Depending on your familiarity with these, this may be the mosteffective option.-Ask if the information exists by posting a a message in a newsgroup related to that subject. If this is not successful,you can try a mailing list.III. The WebsitesA. General WebsitesThese are sites that offer a variety of human rights information and can serve as starting points in your search.-Derechos Human Rightshttp://www.derechos.org/Our own website offers a variety of human rights information including reports on human rights violations, actions, linksand documents. Information isorganized by country and by issue; an index and a search engine allow for easy finding of materials. Derechos includes anonline-journal of human rights, aperiodic newsletter, opportunities for joining human rights mailing lists and a very extensive list of links to other humanrights sites. There is a focus on LatinAmerica, and many of these documents are only available in Spanish. Derechos also hosts a number of human rightsorganizations at its site. Information andreports are added to the site daily.-Minnesota Human Rights Libraryhttp://www.umn.edu/humanrts/ Another premier human rights site, the Human Rights Library has been a pioneer in human rights on the Internet. Its focusis on international materials andcontains treaties, declarations, resolutions, opinions and decisions from international tribunals and treaty bodies. TheHuman Rights Library contain decisionsfrom UN human rights bodies in individual cases that are not available at the UNHCHR site, and the decisions from theInter-American Court of human rights that are not yet available elsewhere. The site is also a great resource for referencematerials on human rights in Africa,human rights in the US, asylum issues,humanitarian law, peace issues, and human rights education. There is an excellent list of links to other sites. For moreinfo see our review of the site in the July'98 issue of Without Impunity. (http://www.derechos.org/wi/2/min.html)-Human Rights Internethttp://www.hri.caAn "international NGO, documentation center and publishing house", Human Rights Internet is an established powerhouse ininternational human rights but arelatively newcomer to the Internet. It has made up by having one of the most useful websites which is constantly beingexpanded and updated. The website ismost useful for human rights NGOs and professionals. It contains articles and documents of use to human rights professionals(e.g. a Journalist Handbook onReporting Human Rights and Humanitarian Stories), a useful section on human rights education including lists of human rightsprograms and syllabi, a jobboard and a calendar of human rights conferences and events. The site also contains copious information on children's rightsand UN human rights information,including the 1997 For the Record, a searchable summary of the activities of all the UN human rights bodies. HumanRights Internet also offers current urgentactions, online discussion fora, fee-based databases and an extensive list of links to other human rights sites (searchable bykeyword, these include shortsummaries of what the sites are about).B. International MaterialsThe web can be at its most useful for finding human rights material issued by different human rights bodies of the UN, theOrganization of American States(OAS) and the European Council. Bear in mind that most of the material available only dates back a few years. United NationsIn addition to the sites below, check out the info available at the Human Rights Library and Human Rights Internetdiscussed above.-UN High Commissioner for Human Rightshttp://www.unhchr.ch Since its inauguration on Human Rights Day 1996, this site has been the crown jewel of human rights on the Internet. TheUNHCHR website contains a largepart of the material produced by the different UN human rights bodies. Here you can find resolutions and reports by the UNCommission and Subcommission,the special rapporteurs and working groups and the treaty monitoring bodies (few documents earlier than 1993 are availablehowever). You can also find thestate party reports to the treaty bodies, which allows a glance at how countries see their own human rights situation. Thewebsite also contains the latest pressreleases by the UNHCHR and other human rights bodies and information on the structure of the UN system of human rightsprotection. You can also find themost important UN declarations and covenants on human rights and copies of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in manylanguages. A major failingof the site - which is unlikely to be resolved soon given the nature of the UN - is its lack of links to other human rightssites. However, its links to other UN orinternational bodies are very useful. The site is currently available in English, French and Spanish (though most materialsare still only available in English),and is constantly improving. For some hints on how to use it see our review of the site in the June '98 issue of WithoutImpunity(http://www.derechos.org/wi/1/a.html )-UNhttp://www.un.orgWhile most of the relevant UN human rights information is available at the UNHCHR site above, the UN site has some usefulfeatures. It contains all treatiesin the UN Treaty Series, including those that are not per se on human rights but that might be relevant to your work, as wellas information on the ratification ofall treaties deposited with the UN. Access to the information requires registration, which was free at the time this documentwas published. There is a usefulguide to UN documents, information on the Rwanda and Bosnia War Crimes Tribunals (including documents related to them), theInternational Criminal Court,and the UN monitoring missions in Guatemala and Haiti.-United Nations High Commission for Refugeeshttp://www.unhcr.ch Information pertaining to refugee and asylum matters, including treaties, national legislation and case law, backgroundpapers, country reports and news. Thewebsite includes copies of the UNHCR magazine "Refugee", materials and lesson plans for use in the classroom, and even anonline documentary. Much of thedocumentation is under the "Refworld" section of the website.-International Criminal Courthttp://www.un.org/icc/Information on the conference and the treaty of Rome. See also http://www.derechos.org/human-rights/links/war.html for linksto other sites with informationon the ICC- NGO Guide to the UN Human Rights Committee http://www.lchr.org/ngo/ngoguide/final.htmBy the Lawyers Committee on Human RightsOrganization of American States-OAS websitehttp://www.oas.org/The OAS website has very scant human rights material, but with some effort you can find the Inter-American human rightscovenants and resolutions. These arealso available at the IACHR site so there is not much reason to come here.-Inter-American Commission on Human Rightshttp://www.oas.org/EN/PROG/ichr/index.htmmirror at http://205.177.229.21/ichr/This year-old site contains the full text of the Commission reports since 1991 and some of its country reports. The sitealso includes the basic documents of theInter-American system of human rights, including the statutes and regulations of the Commission and the Court. Some pressreleases are also available.American University has recently inaugurated its Inter-American Human Rights Database athttp://www.wcl.american.edu/pub/humright/digest/Inter-American/index.html which includes both annual and specialreports since 1970.-Inter-American Court of Human Rightshttp://corteidh-oea.nu.or.cr/ci/HOME_ING.HTMThe IACTHR has just opened its website and still contains only limited information: some rulings of the Court and some ofthe documents and oral arguments presented to the Court. However, the site promises that more information will be added.Meanwhile check the MinnesotaHuman Rights Library site below for decisions of the court until 1996.http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/iachr/iachr.html European Council-Council of Europe Human Rights Webhttp://www.dhdirhr.coe.fr/Information on the European system of human rights and links to relevant materials and websites.-European Court of Human Rightshttp://www.dhcour.coe.fr/This website contains the basic documents of the European system, full text of judgements of the Court since 1996(organized by date), and a list of pendingcases and scheduled hearings. The website lacks a search engine which makes searching through the cases painful.-European Commission of Human Rightshttp://www.dhcommhr.coe.fr/Information on the Commission and reports of cases mostly since 1997; many available only in French.European Union-Selected Resolutions on Human Rights by the European Parliamenthttp://www.derechos.org/nizkor/europa/parlamento/eng.htmlAfrican Human Rights System-African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rightshttp://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/africa/comision.htmlDocuments of the Commission provided by the Minnesota Human Rights libraryInternational Human Rights NGOs-International Red Crosshttp://www.icrc.ch/Information and documents on humanitarian law-Derechos Human Rightshttp://www.derechos.org/-Amnesty Internationalhttp://www.amnesty.org/-Human Rights Watchhttp://www.hrw.org/-World Organization Against Torturehttp://www.omct.org/-International Federation of Human Rights http://www.fidh.imaginet.fr/ -Other human rights organizations |
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