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Human Rights Documentation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2019

Myrna S. Feliciano
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Extract

Studies on international human rights had amorphous beginnings before 1945, which gradually evolved into an intricate but “untrodden area of systematic research.” This is largely attributed to the adoption of the United Nations Charter which sets forth the international protection of human rights as a basic purpose. The proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly in December 10, 1948, provided the impetus for the development of new rules of international law defining in specific terms, individual rights and freedoms. The result is not only a substantial and rapidly developing body of law, both substantive and procedural, that has called for a systematic scholarly analysis but a bibliographic output on the subject which has reached alarming proportions to what is now being referred to as “the human rights documentation explosion.”

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Law Libraries , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , June 1981 , pp. 95 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by International Association of Law Libraries. 

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References

1 M. Moskowitz, The Politics and Dynamics of Human Rights 98-99 (1958).Google Scholar

2 The Declaration amplified two basic categories of rights: economic, social and cultural rights, and civil and political rights. This was subsequently followed by international instruments such as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime (adopted December 9, 1958 and entered into force, January 15, 1951); International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (adopted November 21, 1965 and entered into force, January 4, 1969). International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted December 16, 1966 and entered into force, January 3, 1976), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted December 16, 1966 and entered into force, March 26, 1976), the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted December 16, 1966 and entered into force, March 26, 1976) and the Helsinki Agreement (adopted August 1, 1975).Google Scholar

3 Reynolds, T. H. “Highest Aspirations or Barbarous Acts” … The Explosion in Human Rights Documentation: A Bibliographic Survey, 71 Law Lib. J. 1-48 (1978).Google Scholar

4 Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office 1895-Google Scholar

5 Claude, R. P., Reliable Information: The Threshold Problem for Human Rights Research, 6 Human Rights 169 (1977).Google Scholar

6 Examples are the U.N. Compilation of International Instruments (1978) 130 p., The U.N. General Assembly Official Records and the UN Treaty Series.Google Scholar

7. I. Brownlie, Basic Documents on Human Rights. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971. 531 p.Google Scholar

8. N.Y., Oceana, 1978. 3 v.Google Scholar

9 N.Y., Oceana, 1979-80. 2 out of 3 projected Binders. Looseleaf.Google Scholar

10 Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Law School Library, 1961.Google Scholar

11 N.Y., H. W. Wilson, 1908- .Google Scholar

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13 N.Y., Glanville Publishers, 1958- .Google Scholar

14 Montreal, Index to Canadian Legal Periodical Literature, 1963- .Google Scholar

15 Produced by the Information Access Corporation, 1980- . v. monthly with quarterly and annual cumulations. I have had no opportunity to examine this index and its sister publication, Legal Resource Index which I understand will appear on microfilm.Google Scholar

16 N.Y., Published for the Parker School of Comparative Law, Columbia University by Oceana Publication, 1955-62. 2 v. With Supplements.Google Scholar

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20 N.Y., PAIS Inc., 1914- .Google Scholar

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22 Paris, International Political Science Association, 1951- .Google Scholar

23 N.Y., N.Y. Times, 1913- .Google Scholar

24 New Haven, Conn., Research Publications, Inc., 1906- .Google Scholar

25 For examples see M. Meltzer, The Human Rights Book 167-162 (1979) and W. Laquer & B. Rubin, The Human Rights Reader 130-375 (1979).Google Scholar

26 For country listing, see R. Claude, op. cit. supra note 5 at 175-187. For an excellent bibliographic survey, see T. H. Reynolds, op. cit. supra, note 3. See also H. A. Hood, Human Rights Research in Periodicals: A Bibliographic Note, 13 Vand. J. Trans. L. 519-527 (1980).Google Scholar

27 N.Y., Columbia University School of Law. V. 1, 1967/68- .Google Scholar

28 Strasbourg, Institute of Human Rights. V. 1, 1968- .Google Scholar

29 Chicago, American Bar Association Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities. V. 1, 1970- .Google Scholar

30 J. E. S. Fawcett, London, Oxford Journal. V. 1, 1976- .Google Scholar

31 Richard P. Claude, ed. College Park, University of Maryland. V. 1, 1979- .Google Scholar

32 N.Y., International League for Human Rights. V. 1, 1974- .Google Scholar

33 London, Amnesty International. V. 1, 1968- .Google Scholar

34 Geneva, International Commission of Jurists. V. 1, 1969- .Google Scholar

35 N.Y., Freedom House, 1970- . There is a yearly publication which contains comparative surveys and country summaries entitled Freedom in the World, Political Rights and Civil Liberties which cumulates the Freedom at Issue.Google Scholar

36 Geneva, United Nations. No. 1, 1969- .Google Scholar

37 Elliott, Maryland, Helsinki Guarantees for Ukraine Committee and Ukrainian Information Service, 1978- which is a publication I have not examined but mentioned in Hood, op. cit. supra, note 25 at 525.Google Scholar

38. Compiled by Wiseberg, Laurie S. and Scoble, Harry M. Washington, D.C., Human Rights Internet, 1980. 181 p. The two other directories are the Human Rights Organizations and Periodicals Directory issued biennially by the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute at Berkeley, California and the Human Rights Action Guide which is published annually by the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy at Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

39 L. Wiseberg & R. Greenfield, Human Rights Resources in the United States, in Human Rights Internet, 1980 North American Human Rights Directory 126-142 (1980).Google Scholar

40 Ibid., p. 134–136.Google Scholar

41 Ibid., p. 140–1.Google Scholar

42 The LIVT used in the Scorpio System constitutes an entirely separate and independent indexing system used primarily for periodicals, government publications and legislative developments of interest to the U.S. Congress. Ibid., p. 137–139.Google Scholar

43 Ibid., p. 142.Google Scholar

44 See Buerguenthal, T. & Torney, J. V., Expanding the International Human Rights Research Agenda, 23 International Studies Q. 321–334 (1979) where the authors have identified ten research needs in the area of international human rights.Google Scholar

45 EURIDOCS: A Project to Consider the Establishment of a Human Rights International Documentation Service, 5 HUMAN RIGHTS INTERNET NEWSLETTER 1 10–11 (March-April 1980).Google Scholar