Human Rights Reports - International Human Rights and Dispute Resolution - Law 373 - LibGuides at University of Victoria Libraries

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
"The High Commissioner for Human Rights is the principal human rights official of the United Nations. The High Commissioner heads OHCHR and spearheads the United Nations' human rights efforts. We offer leadership, work objectively, educate and take action to empower individuals and assist States in upholding human rights. [...] The OHCHR’s thematic priorities are strengthening international human rights mechanisms; enhancing equality and countering discrimination; combating impunity and strengthening accountability and the rule of law; integrating human rights in development and in the economic sphere; widening the democratic space; and early warning and protection of human rights in situations of conflict, violence and insecurity."
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The Office's priorities, expected accomplishments and strategies are set out in the OHCHR Management Plan 2014-2017.

UN Human Rights Council

Human Rights Council
Created by the General Assembly in 2006, the Human Rights Council consists of 47 states elected by the General Assembly. The Council is responsible for promoting and protecting human rights.
Universal Periodic Review
Since 2006, the UN General Assembly has mandated that the Human Rights Council undertake a universal periodic review of each State's fulfillment of its human rights obligations and commitments.
Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council
Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council are independent human rights experts who have been given a mandate to report on human rights from a thematic or state-specific perspective. Use the Special Procedures Database to locate the reports of the Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council.
Subsidiary expert mechanisms
The Human Rights Council also establishes subsidiary expert mechanisms that provide expertise to the HRC. These subsidiary expert mechanisms also serve as a forum for discussion of specific human rights themes.

UN Treaty-based Bodies

UN Treaty Body Database

The UN Treaty Body Database contains all periodic reports member states have filed on their implementation of each of the UN human rights treaties they have ratified. The database also includes:

UN Committee observations, comments, conclusions and recommendations;
Civil Society submissions and shadow reports; and
National Human Rights Institutions submissions.

Universal Human Rights Index

Universal Human Rights Index
The Universal Human Rights Index provides researchers a way to quickly locate state specific recommendations from the various UN human rights compliance and monitoring mechanisms (eg Treaty Bodies, Universal Periodic Review, Special Rapporteurs etc).

Regional Human Rights Systems

Country Monitoring / Human Rights Reports

Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights First
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada's National Documentation Packages
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada's National Documentation Packages (NDPs) bring together public reports on country conditions. Included in the NDPs are country specific human rights reports produced by a variety of international human rights bodies and NGOs.
Worldwide NGO Directory
This directory can be used to find additional human rights NGOs that publish both country and topic-specific human rights reports.