POLI 122: Politics of Human Rights (Spring 2023): Human Rights Resources

Human Rights Datasets

CIRIGHTS Data Project
The CIRIGHTS Data Project is the largest human rights dataset in the world and scores a representative sample of all internationally recognized human rights for all countries of the world covering 40 years. Interact with the data as a map or download dataset in Excel and Stata.

Human Rights Info by Country

Use the resources on this page to find county-by-country background info and/or reports on key human rights issues.

Human Rights Indicators - UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Human Rights Indicators: A Guide to Measurement and Implementation / Interactive Map: Status of Ratification of Human Rights Treaties / Map: Accreditation of National Human Rights Institutions
US Department of State - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
1993+. Reports cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights. Prepared by U.S. Department of State for Congress.
Also US Docs, Geisel Floor2 West
Previous years are available in Internet Archive
Human Rights by Country
from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Human Rights Watch - Regions
"Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all."
Amnesty International - Human Rights by Country
"Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 3 million supporters, members and activists in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights."
Freedom House - Freedom in the World
Country and territory reports covering population, political rights (numerical rating), civil liberties (numerical rating), status (Free, Partly Free, or Not Free), and a 10-year ratings timeline.
Attacks on the Press by Year and Region
A Worldwide Survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists
RefWorld: National Legislation / National Legislative Bodies / National Authorities
Laws relating to refugees, human rights, citizenship, etc.

Key Human Rights Documents

Human Rights Library - University of Minnesota
*The* site to begin human rights research. Comprehensive site includes full-text documents, treaties, international agreements, and more.
Human Rights - United Nations Documentation: Research Guide
Research guide to UN materials dealing with human rights, with links to full text when available.
Council of Europe Human Rights and Rule of Law
Contains news and full-text legal documents
OHCHR Jurisprudence
This database provides easy access to jurisprudence emanating from the United Nations Treaty Bodies which receive and consider complaints from individuals: the Human Rights Committee (CCPR), the Committee against Torture (CAT), the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Project Diana: Human Rights Cases (Project Avalon)
Contains articles, documents, and links to resources in a variety of subject areas
Human Rights Texts: Converting Human Rights Primary Source Documents into Data
Replication data for Fariss CJ, Linder FJ, Jones ZM, Crabtree CD, Biek MA, Ross A-SM, et al. (2015) Human Rights Texts: Converting Human Rights Primary Source Documents into Data. PLoS ONE 10(9): e0138935. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0138935. Corpus of over 14,000 reports and documents from human rights organizations.

Visual History Archive (VHA)
USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive allows users to search through and view more than 54,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide.

Initially a repository of Holocaust testimony, the Visual History Archive has expanded to include testimonies from the Armenian Genocide that coincided with World War I, the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in China, the Cambodian Genocide of 1975-1979, the Guatemalan Genocide of 1978-1983, the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the ongoing conflicts in the Central African Republic and South Sudan, and anti-Rohingya mass violence. It also includes testimonies about contemporary acts of violence against Jews. . Individual Registration required.