Analysis: Books, Articles, Etc.

Although traditional, paid databases generally contain the most comprehensive collections of journals and other secondary sources, a number of sites provide useful content for free.

Book, Article, and Working Paper Databases

  • Thousands of articles and conference papers on human rights topics are available on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN).
  • Google Scholar contains a searchable database of scholarly articles and books, including on human rights topics.
  • The library catalog WorldCat contains links to downloadable articles (some available free of charge).

Law Journals

  • The Washington College of Law’s Human Rights Brief is an international human rights and humanitarian law journal and is available free online.  Request a free print subscription here.
  • The Human Rights Law Review provides free access to select articles on its website, and occasionally provides free access to a sample issue, after registering with Oxford Journals.
  • It can also be worthwhile to browse the article abstracts in the archives of journals such as those published by Oxford University Press for a review of current topics and perspectives. Most journals provide paid access to individual articles without requiring a journal subscription.

Other Reports

IJRC’s custom Google Search tool allows visitors to search human rights bodies’ web sites simultaneously for press releases, policy statements, State reports, and commentary.

For resources on human rights conditions around the world, see the Human Rights Conditions section of the Online Resource Hub.

For reports, statements, decisions, and recommendations produced by human rights bodies, see the Jurisprudence & Document Databases section of the Online Resource Hub.