This guide to Human Rights Issues on the Web is an attempt to show you how to begin using the Internet to find human rights information. It assumes that you already know how to use the basic Internet tools: e-mail and the web. Please note that the sites and methods discussed here are by no means exhaustive; in addition, given the nature of the Internet, this guide was very likely out-of-date even before it was finished.

       It is important to understand that while there is a lot of human rights information on the Internet, it only constitutes a small fraction of the information available in the "world."  This means that you will not necessarily find what you are looking for; it may just not be there. Use the Internet as a way to supplement your library or field research, but don't expect to be able to use it as your sole source of information.
 

       The Internet has multiple "spaces" where information is stored and exchanged. In addition to the web, there are mailing lists, where people can exchange information and ideas via e-mail, newsgroups, bulletin-boards accessible to everyone with full-Internet access where useful information and people are sometimes available, chat rooms, where you can meet with friends to discuss issues or drop in to ask questions, and telnet, which provides access to library catalogs and other databases. In addition, much information is still available at ftp  (file transfer protocol) and gopher sites; you can access these sites with most web browsers (software such as Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, and Opera, which is used to access the web).

       As a general guide, first look at what's available on the web, or what has been discussed on newsgroups or mailing lists (you can get 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.
 
 

        Perhaps surprisingly, there is very little information or discussions as to what human rights are, or other introductory materials to human rights and human rights law. Academic and legal articles on human rights issues have become more common, but are still comparatively rare. Most of the human rights material available on line is a few years old at most. Reports and information prior to the mid-90s are often hard to find. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' (UNHCHR) website, for example, has few reports earlier than 1993; Amnesty International's materials mostly date from 1996.  On the other hand, the latest human rights information is often not available on the web either (though it may have been distributed through mailing lists), as few organizations have the resources necessary to immediately place all new information on their sites.
 

Go to a site that contains information similar to what you are looking for, and look for a section labeled links. Links are graphics or highlighted text that will connect you to another document or website when you click on it. Most sites will link to others containing similar material.

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 most effective 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.
 

       These are sites that offer a variety of human rights information and can serve as starting points in your search.

Derechos Human Rights:  http://www.derechos.org/
        Derechos offers a variety of human rights information including reports on human rights violations, actions, links and documents. Information is organized by country and by issue; an index and a search engine allow for easy finding of materials. Derechos includes an online-journal of human rights, a periodic newsletter, opportunities for joining human rights mailing lists and a very extensive list of links to other human rights sites. There is a focus on Latin America, and many of these documents are only available in Spanish. Derechos also hosts a number of human rights organizations at its site. Information and reports are added to the site daily.

Minnesota Human Rights Library:
  http://www.umn.edu/hum anrts/ 
       Another premier human rights site, the Human Rights Library has been a pioneer in human rights on the Internet. Its focus is on international materials and contains treaties, declarations, resolutions, opinions and decisions from international tribunals and treaty bodies. The Human Rights Library contains decisions >from UN human rights bodies in individual cases that are not available at the UNHCHR site, and decisions from the Inter-American Court of human rights that are not yet available elsewhere. The site is also a great resource for reference materials 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 more info see the review of this site in the July '98 issue of Without Impunity.(http://www.derec hos.org/wi/2/min.ht ml)
 

Human Rights Internet:  http://www.hri.ca
         An "international NGO, documentation center and publishing house", Human Rights Internet is an established powerhouse in international human rights but a relative newcomer to the Internet. It has made up by having one of the most useful websites which is constantly being expanded and updated. The website is most useful for human rights NGOs and professionals. It contains articles and documents of use to human rights professionals (e.g. a Journalist Handbook on Reporting Human Rights and Humanitarian Stories), a useful section on human rights education including lists of human rights programs and syllabi, a job board and a calendar of human rights conferences and events. The site also contains copious information on children's rights and UN human rights information, in-cluding the 1997 For the Record, a searchable summary of the activities of all the UN human rights bodies. Human Rights Internet also offers current urgent actions, online discussion fora, fee-based databases and an extensive list of links to other human rights sites (searchable by keyword, these include short summaries of what the sites are about).

 

UN High Commissioner for Human Right:  http://www.unhchr.ch 
Since its inauguration on Human Rights Day 1996, this site has been the crown jewel of human rights on the Internet. The UNHCHR website contains a large part of the material produced by the different UN human rights bodies. Here you can find resolutions and reports by the UN Commission and Subcommission, the special rapporteurs and working groups and the treaty monitoring bodies (few documents earlier than 1993 are available however). You can also find the state party reports to the treaty bodies, which allows a glance at how countries see their own human rights situation. The website also contains the latest press releases by the UNHCHR and other human rights bodies and information on the structure of the UN system of human rights protection. You can also find the most important UN declarations and covenants on human rights and copies of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in many languages. A major failing of the site, which is unlikely to be resolved soon given the nature of the UN, is its lack of links to other human rights sites. However, its links to other UN or international bodies are very useful. The site is currently available in English, French and Spanish (though most materials are still only available in English), and is constantly improving. For some hints on how to use it see the review of this site in the June '98 issue of Without Impunity:(http://www.derechos. org/wi/1/a.html)

United Nations:  http://www.un.org
       While most of the relevant UN human rights information is available at the UNHCHR site above, the UN site has some useful features. It contains all treaties in the UN Treaty Series, including those that are not per se on human rights but that might be relevant to your work, as well as information on the ratification of all treaties deposited with the UN. Access to the information requires registration, which was free at the time this document was published. There is a useful guide to UN documents, information on the Rwanda and Bosnia War Crimes Tribunals (including documents related to them), the International Criminal Court, and the UN monitoring missions in Guatemala and Haiti.

United Nations High Commission for Refugees: http://www.unhcr.ch 
Information pertaining to refugee and asylum matters, including treaties, national legislation and case law, background papers, country reports and news. The website includes copies of the UNHCR magazine "Refugee", materials and lesson plans for use in the classroom, and even an online documentary. Much of the documentation is under the "Refworld" section of the website.

International Criminal Court:  http://www.un.org/icc/
Information on the conference and the treaty of Rome. See also o http://www. derechos.org/human-rights/links/war.html for links to other sites with information on the ICC

NGO Guide to the UN Human Rights Committee:        http://www.lch r.org/ngo/ngoguide/ final.htm  Site set up by the Lawyers Committee on Human Rights

Organization of American States 
(OAS website): http://www.oas.org/
The OAS website has very scant human rights material, but with some effort you can find the Inter-American human rights covenants and resolutions. These are also available at the IACHR site so there is not much reason to come here.

Inter- American Commission on Human Rights: http://www.oa s.org/EN/PROG/i chr/index.htm

mirror 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 site also includes the basic documents of the Inter-American system of human rights, including the statutes and regulations of the Commission and the Court. Some press releases are also available.

Inter- American Court of Human Rights: http://w ww1.umn.edu/humanr ts/iachr/iachr.html 
The IACHR does not have a website. However you can find most of the decisions of the court until 1996 at the Minnesota Human Rights Library site above.

European Council
Council of Europe Human Rights Web: http://www.dhdirhr.coe.fr/
Information on the European system of human rights and links to relevant materials and websites.

European Court of Human Rights:  http://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 pending cases and scheduled hearings. The website lacks a search engine which makes searching through the cases painful.

European Commission of Human Rights: http://www.dhcommhr.coe.fr /
Information on the Commission and reports of cases mostly since 1997; many available only in French.

Selected Resolutions on Human Rights by the European Parliament:

http://www.derech os.org/nizkor/europa/parlamento/eng.html 

African Human Rights System
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights:
http:/ /www1.umn.edu/hu manrts/africa/comision.html
Documents of the Commission provided by the Minnesota Human Rights library

International Human Rights NGOs
International Red Cross:  http://www.icrc.ch/
Information and documents on humanitarian law

Derechos Human Rights:  http://www.derechos.org/

Amnesty International:  http://www.amnesty.org/

Human Rights Watch:  http://www.hrw.org/

World Organization Against Torture: http://www.omct.org/

International Federation of Human Rights : http://www.fidh.imaginet.fr/

Other human rights organizations:
http://www.derechos.org/human- rights/links/org.html