IDC Publishers - Human Rights Documents Online

Human Rights Documents Online

Order		Background

Human Rights Documents Online
Material from the Human Rights Internet (HRI) in Ottawa, Canada

Since 1980, Brill/IDC has been providing microfiche access to an ever-growing, authoritative collection of Human Rights Documents from the collection edited by Human Rights Internet in Ottawa. These documents emanate from 355 non-governmental human rights organizations (NGOs) worldwide, some of which have a universal scope, whilst others focus on the attainment of human rights in a specific area of the world. The collection currently covers the years 1980-2004 and spans a broad range of human rights issues.

Broad Subject Range
The organizations whose material is represented are concerned with a broad range of human rights issues: with the rights of indigenous peoples, refugees, women, labor, children; with freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, and freedom of conscience; with the abolition of torture, political killings, disappearances, slavery and genocide; with the fate of political prisoners, with the rule of law and due process; with political participation and self-determination; and with the fulfillment of basic human needs. The focus of some NGO’s is universal in scope; others are concerned with the attainment of human rights in specific areas of the world. The collection represents the concerns of all groups in all regions of the world: Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, Latin America, North America, and Europe. The collection is updated regularly. Typically, an update includes both supplemented and new titles.

Human Rights Internet, Ottawa
Over the past decades, Human Rights Internet (HRI) in Ottawa has been serving as an unofficial depository for the documentation produced by non-governmental human rights organizations (NGO’s) throughout the world. During these years the organization has gained Consultative Status with the United Nations and Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. The effective worldwide network in which Human Rights Internet operates, ensures the availability of a vast amount of material that otherwise would not be retrievable from the country of origin. It brings together a wide variety of reports on human rights issues, which would otherwise be very difficult to locate, obtain and consult. Many of the publications originate directly from countries where human rights are challenged. The collection which HRI has amassed over the last twenty-five years includes publications by more than 350 nongovernmental organizations.

Grey Literature
The material produced by NGO’s concerned with human rights and social justice – both published and unpublished documents – is vital to the analysis of the status of human rights and to the promotion and protection of those rights. Yet much of this source material is difficult to obtain. In a certain sense, it is “grey” literature: copies of publications are produced in limited numbers and very narrowly disseminated; material is often produced on poor quality paper, in odd shapes and sizes, at irregular intervals; organizations which emerge to confront a particular crisis often dissolve after the crisis ends, and the documentation of those organizations disappears.

Human Rights Internet
Human Rights Internet (HRI) was affiliated with Harvard University’s Faculty of Law from 1985 until 1990 (the organization was independent but worked in cooperation with the faculty’s Human Rights Program). In 1990 HRI moved to Ottawa and was initially affiliated with the University of Ottawa (again, the organization was independent, but worked in cooperation with the university’s Human Rights Research and Education Centre). In 1994 HRI left the university premises and now works entirely independently from its office in Ottawa.