Home
Getting Started
- Oxford Handbooks Online (Harvard Login)Review essays that evaluate the current thinking on a field or topic, and make an original argument about the future direction of the debate. Contains several reviews of human rights topics.
- Oxford Bibliographies Online (Harvard Login)Selective, discipline-focused, online guides to the essential literature in subjects in the humanities and social sciences.
- Encyclopedia of Human Rights (Harvard Login)Online access to award winning, five-volume encyclopedia offering comprehensive coverage of all aspects of human rights theory, practice, law, and history.
- Oxford Public International Law (Harvard Login)A comprehensive, single location providing integrated access to international law resources. Includes Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law and Oxford Reports on International Law.
- Brill Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Harvard Login)E-books on human rights, humanitarian and international public law.
E-Books, Articles and Other Publications
- Proquest Social Sciences Premium Collection (Harvard Login)Database collection covering the social sciences including politics, sociology, education and criminal justice. Includes Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS).
- Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (Harvard Login)Provides citations to articles in law reviews, bar association journals, yearbooks, institutes, and government publications from 1980 to present.
Human Rights Libraries
- HeinOnline Foreign & International Law Resources (Harvard Login)Access to key publications from the American Society of International Law and human rights yearbooks from around the world. Includes international tribunals and judicial decisions.
Data & Statistics
Human Rights
- CIRI Human Rights Data ProjectProvides data on human rights violations for 202 countries, annually over the period 1981-2011.
- Freedom in the WorldAnnual flagship publication which surveys and rates 195 countries and 15 related and disputed territories by human rights criteria.
- Humanitarian Data ExchangeAn open platform for sharing humanitarian data with data from over 80 organizations including governments, NGOs and UN agencies.
- Minorities at Risk (MAR) ProjectProvides information on the status and conflicts of more than 283 politically-active ethnic groups in all countries with a current population of at least 500,000
- WomenStatsCompiles qualitative and quantitative information on over 310 indicators of women's status in 174 countries. Free registration is required.
Aid
- AidDataSearchable, open access database of nearly one million past and present aid activities around the world, and data tools to increase understanding of development finance.
- Financial Tracking ServiceManaged by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, this global, real-time database which tracks all reported international humanitarian aid including that for NGOs and the Red Cross / Red Crescent Movement, bilateral aid, in-kind aid, and private donations.
Legal Research
Law Journal Databases
- Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (Harvard Login)Provides citations to articles in law reviews, bar association journals, yearbooks, institutes, and government publications from 1980 to present.
- HeinOnline Foreign & International Law Resources (Harvard Login)Provides full-text access to publications from the American Society of International Law and human rights yearbooks from around the world, as well as the Hague Permanent Court of International Justice series and other useful materials.
International Law Reference Resources
- Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (MPEPIL) (Harvard Login)Online reference work for basic information about international human rights cases and issues. Click on Subject to search by key topics in human rights.
- Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law (Harvard Login)Focus on international law subjects, including legislation and case law. Includes volumes on Limits of Force, Torture and the Geneva Conventions. Published in English or French.
Legislation
- Legislationonline.org"Provides direct access to international norms and standards relating to specific human dimension issues, as well as to domestic legislation and other documents of relevance to these issues." Includes full text access for legislation from both Western and Eastern European countries.
- Proquest Congressional (Harvard Login)Access bills, legislative history, congressional documents of the United States back to 1789 and CRS Reports.
International Courts
- International Court of Justice (ICJ)The principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). The ICJ settles disputes between the States (not individuals).
- International Criminal Court (ICC)The first permanent, treaty based, international criminal court for perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. The ICC is an independent international organization, and is not part of the United Nations system.
- International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)The United Nations court of law dealing with war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990’s.
Case Law
- ESCR Case Law DatabasePositive domestic, regional and international legal decisions from around the world regarding economic, social and cultural rights. Case summaries primarily in English and Spanish, with a growing number in French and Arabic.
- Child Rights International Network (CHRIN)Includes data, reports, and global coverage of child rights cases.
- Sexual Right Initiative, Law & Policy DatabaseDocuments and compares the status of law and policy related to sexual rights issues in different countries around the world
Think Tank Search
Think Tank Search
Search using Google conventions (i.e. putting quotation marks around phrases).
Inclusion Policy
Think Tank Search searches the websites of institutions that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity. These sites are affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, and non-governmental organizations. Inclusion is based upon the relevancy of subject area to HKS coursework and scholarship, the availability of the think tank’s research in full-text on the website, and the think tank’s reputation and influence upon policy making. The list represents a mixture of partisan and non-partisan think tanks.
Other Lists
- Policy File Index (Harvard Login)Abstracts of and links to domestic and international public policy issue published by think tanks, university research programs, & research organizations.
- Policy Commons: Global Think TanksCollection of research from the world’s leading policy experts, think tanks, IGOs and NGOs. At last count it contains over 3 million publications from more than 24,000 organizations.
- Open Research Reports from JSTORMore than 39,000 research reports from over 140 policy institutes around the world are freely accessible to everyone on JSTOR. The open research reports are discoverable alongside journals, books, and primary sources, and are clearly labeled as their own content type.
- Find PolicyA side project of Transparify, search think tank sites grouped by topic and location.
- Open Think Tank DirectoryA global collection of 2700 think tanks and related organisations.
- Think Tank Review
Repository of think tank publications on EU affairs from the Library of the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU.
Organizations
UN
- UN Documentation: Human Rights GuideResearch Guides on locating UN documents for human rights research. Authored by the UN Library.
- UN WatchA non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, whose mandate is to monitor the performance of the United Nations.
Government & Agencies
- US Department of State's Human Rights ReportsThese reports from the U.S. Department of State cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- EU Agency for Fundamental RightsAn EU agency with the task of providing independent, evidence-based advice on fundamental rights. This group issues a number of papers and reports on topics relating to human rights issues in the EU.
Organizations
- Brill Human Rights Documents (Harvard Login)Database of documents from hundreds of non-governmental human rights organizations. Covers 1980s - present.
- Amnesty International, Annual ReportsSearchable website for human rights information by topic or by country. Includes comprehensive annual reports.
- Freedom HouseIncludes reports and annual scores of civil and political rights for most countries
- State of the World's ChildrenProduced by UNICEF, this annual report includes downloadable statistical tables that can be customized.
- Human Rights Watch, World ReportAnnual report published by Human Rights Watch. Reports provide information on human rights conditions in more than 90 countries. Includes archive of reports from 1989 to present.
- Refugees InternationalAdvocating for lifesaving assistance and protection for displaced people and promotes solutions to displacement crises. Includes in depth reports on displacement issues in specific countries and regions.
- Norweigian Refugee Council, PublicationsIncludes, news, reports, evaluations on displaced and vulnerable people in crisis.
Human Trafficking
UN Agencies
Several UN agencies research, collect and publish information on human trafficking issues. Below are listed the major UN agencies that focus on this issue.
- UN, Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Human Trafficking Knowledge PortalDisseminates information regarding the implementation of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and specifically the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
Includes a case law database on officially documented instances of trafficking and searchable legislation database. - Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)The United Nations office with primary responsibility for promoting and protecting Human Rights. The Office's Special Rapportuer on Human Trafficking produces annual reports and other reports and recommendations
- International Labour OrganizationBrings together representatives of governments, employers and workers to jointly shape policies and programs relating to labor issues. Reports and data on human trafficking, which includes sex trafficking as a subset by country and geographic region. Use search terms like forced labour in the search box.
US Government Agencies
- US Department of State, Trafficking in Persons ReportAnnual report summarizing trafficking issues by Country including data, analysis and policy recommendations. Countries are assigned one of three tiers based on the extent of their governments’ efforts to comply with the “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.”
Non-Governmental Organizations
- Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)Includes news stories and reports on human trafficking in East and West European countries.
- Polaris ProjectA leading advocacy group for ending human trafficking. The organization advocates for stronger laws against human trafficking organizations and provide services to victims of trafficking.
Gender
Harvard Kennedy School
- Carr Center, Violence Against Women Publications DatabaseCurated by staff at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, this database provides access to hundreds of articles, research papers, presentations, news and other resources relevant to the topic of Violence Against Women (VAW).
Databases
- GenderWatch (Harvard Login)Provides abstracts and the full text of some 175 academic and scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, booklets and pamphlets, conference proceedings, and government, non-governmental organization, and special reports.
- WomenStatsCompiles qualitative and quantitative information on over 310 indicators of women's status in 174 countries. Free registration is required.
- World Bank, Gender Data PortalStatistics by country and topic. Includes useful links for more data sources.
Other Research Guides
Other Research Guides
- Harvard Law Library, Research GuidesAuthored by Harvard Law Librarians, select the Human Rights and International Law categories to find a variety of specialized research guides on related topics.
- UN Documentation: Human Rights GuideResearch Guides on locating UN documents for human rights research. Authored by the UN Library.