IGC Members: Read Human Rights discussion groups via
the World Wide
Web on the IGC Discussion Groups Page.
All Human Rights for All
50th Anniversary
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1948-1998
December
10, 1998, New York, NY - The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi
Annan announced today, in New York, the recepients of the United Nations
Human Rights Awards for 1998 at a ceremony held on the occasion of the
celebration, by the General Assembly, of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Recipients for 1998 are:
-
Sunila Abeyesekera, Director of a human rights organization in Sri
Lanka;
-
Angelina Acheng Atyam, who has worked to secure the release of children
in rebel captivity in Uganda;
-
Jimmy Carter, former President of the United Sates, who contributed
to bringing a peaceful solution to the civil war in Liberia;
-
Jose Gregori, Head of the Brazilian National Secretariat for Human
Rights;
-
Anna Sabatova of the Czech Republic, one of the founding members
of "Charter 77"
Basic Documents
Country and Issue Reports
Databases and Directories
News Services
Organizations Working for Human
Rights
Photos and Images
United Nations
Basic Documents
This collection of United Nations instruments forms the foundation
of international human rights law. The International Bill of Human Rights
consists of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two Optional Protocols.
Additional instruments are categorized along broad areas of focus which
include: right of self-determination; prevention of discrimination; rights
of women; rights of the child; freedom of information; freedom of association
and others.
Country and Issue Reports
A number of organizations release annual or periodic reports, reviewing
human rights conditions by country, issue or other concern. HTML or PDF
versions of these reports are typically available online, and it is usually
possible to order print copies as well. Organizations like Globalvision,
The Video Project, both IGC members, and Witness specialize in video repororting.
Please see the Organizations Working for Human
Rights section below for a description of an organization's activities.
Databases and Directories
News Services
Organizations Working for
Human Rights
 The Africa Fund
http://www.prairienet.org/acas/afund.html
Founded in 1966 by the American Committee on Africa, The Africa Fund works for a positive U.S. policy toward Africa and supports African human rights, democracy and development.
American Friends Service Committee
http://www.afsc.org
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization
which includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice,
peace, and humanitarian service.
Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org
Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide campaigning movement that
works to promote all the human rights identified in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and other international standards. AI has nearly one million
members and supporters in 162 countries and territories.
Center for Economic and Social Rights
http://www.igc.org/cesr/
The Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) was established in
1993 to address issues of poverty (access to health, food, housing, education,
and other basic needs) as human rights under international and domestic
law.
Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law Foundation
http://www.centerforhumanrights.org/
The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law Foundation (CHRCL)
works to protect and promote the constitutional and international human
rights of immigrants, refugees, minorities, and indigenous peoples, including
the rights to an adequate standard of living, to work, to freedom of expression,
and to be free from discrimination, arbitrary arrest, torture, and execution.
Coalition for Amazonian Peoples and Their Environment
http://www.amazoncoalition.org/
The Coalition for Amazonian Peoples and Their Environment is an initiative
born out of the alliance between indigenous and traditional peoples of
the Amazon and groups and individuals who share their concerns for the
future of the Amazon and its peoples.
Coalition for an International Criminal Court
http://www.igc.org/icc/
The proposed International Criminal Court (ICC) will be a permanent
Court that will investigate and bring to justice individuals, not countries,
who commit the most serious crimes of concern to the international community,
such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity-including widespread
murder of civilians, torture and mass rape. The ICC will be a global judicial
institution, an international jurisdiction complementing national legal
systems.
Committee to Protect Journalists
http://www.cpj.org/
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit
organization founded in 1981 to monitor abuses against the press and promote
press freedom around the world.
Global Survival Network
http://www.globalsurvival.net/
The Global Survival Network has developed a number of comprehensive
environmental and human rights programs that expose, analyze and address
criminal threats to human welfare and the environment. A recent report
on human traffiing (Crime
& Servitude: An Exposé of the Traffic in Women for Prostitution
from the Newly Independent States) focused on the expanded trade of
women and children from Russia and the former Soviet republics into Europe,
Asia and the United States. .
Globalvision
http://www.globalvision.org/
Founded in 1987, Globalvision is an independent film and television
production company specializing in information, entertainment and educational
programming for both domestic and international markets. Their work has
included the anti-apartheid television series South Africa Now, and Rights
& Wrongs: Human Rights Television, which aired weekly worldwide between
1992-96.
Human Rights In China
http://www.hrichina.org
Human Rights in China (HRIC) is an international non-governmental organization
founded by Chinese scientists and scholars in March 1989. HRIC monitors
the implementation of international human rights standards in the People's
Republic of China and carries out human rights advocacy and education among
Chinese people inside and outside the country.
Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/
Human Rights Watch works to end a broad range of abuses, including
summary executions, torture, arbitrary detention, restrictions on the freedom
of expression, association, assembly and religion, violations of due process,
and discrimination on racial, gender, ethnic and religious grounds.
International Human Rights Law Group
http://www.hrlawgroup.org
The International Human Rights Law Group is a nonprofit organization
of human rights and legal professionals engaged in human rights advocacy,
litigation and training around the world. It works to support and help
empower advocates to expand the scope of human rights protection for men
and women and to promote broad participation in creating more effective
human rights standards and procedures at the national, regional and international
levels.
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights
http://www.lchr.org/
Since 1978, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (LCHR) has worked
to protect and promote fundamental human rights. Its programs focus on
building the legal institutions and structures that will guarantee human
rights in the long term. Strengthening independent human rights advocacy
at the local level is a key feature of its work.
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
http://www.ncadp.org/
The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP), a coalition
of organizations and individuals committed to the abolition of capital
punishment, provides information, advocates for public policy and mobilizes
and supports people and institutions that share our unconditional rejection
of the state's use of homocide as an instrument of social policy.
Peace Brigades International
http://www.igc.org/pbi/
Peace Brigades International (PBI) is a unique grassroot organization
exploring and implementing nonviolent approaches to peacekeeping and support
for basic human rights.
PEN American Center
http://www.pen.org/
PEN American Center, the largest of nearly 130 Centers worldwide that
compose International PEN, is a membership association of prominent literary
writers and editors. As a major voice of the literary community the organization
seeks to defend the freedom of expression wherever it may be threatened,
and promote and encourage the recognition and reading of contemporary literature.
Physicians for Human Rights
http://www.phrusa.org/
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is an organization of health professionals,
scientists, and concerned citizens that uses the knowledge and skills of
the medical and forensic sciences to investigate and prevent violations
of international human rights and humanitarian law.
Rights International
http://www.rightsinternational.org/
Established in 1994, Rights International (RI) fights for those rights
recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international
human rights treaties. RI sues foreign governments before international
tribunals on behalf of people throughout the world whose human rights have
been violated by their governments. RI collaborates with and assists human
rights advocates in other countries by providing legal assistance, and
trains human rights advocates in this emerging area of law.
The Video Project
http://www.videoproject.org/
In 1998 The Video Project (TVP) celebrates 15 years as the nation's
non-profit source of educational programs for a safe and sustainable world.
TVP's site lists over 400 programs that celebrate the natural world, examine
threats to our environment, and offer solutions. Their catalog includes
Oscar and Emmy award-winning productions from over 270 independent filmmakers
worldwide.
Witness for Peace
http://www.witnessforpeace.org
Witness for Peace was founded in 1983, by clergy and lay people outraged
by the Reagan Administration's policy of "low intensity warfare" directed
toward Nicaragua's civilian population. Witness for Peace has fifteen years
of history as a leader in the Central America movement.
American Association for the Advancement
of Science (AAAS) Science and Human Rights Program
http://shr.aaas.org/
The Program's work is based on the premise that, as a matter of scientific
freedom and responsibility, scientific societies should encourage international
respect for the human rights standards embodied in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and other international treaties.
The Carter
Center
http://www.emory.edu/CARTER_CENTER/homepage.htm
The Carter Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute
founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, in
1982. The Human Rights Program (HRP) assists victims of human rights abuse,
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), intergovernmental agencies, and governments
struggling to build institutions to protect human rights.
Death Penalty Information
Center
http://www.essential.org/dpic/
The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization serving
the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning
capital punishment. The Center was founded in 1990 and prepares in-depth
reports, issues press releases, conducts briefings for journalists, and
serves as a resource to those working on this issue.
François-Xavier
Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights
http://www.hri.ca/partners/fxbcenter/index.htm
The Center strives to catalyze thinking and to bring public health
and human rights professionals together in recognition of the interaction
between health and human rights. Through the development of methods, tools
and skills, health professionals are encouraged to undertake concrete actions
towards the promotion and protection of human rights in their work, while
the capacity of human rights professionals to address public health concerns
is enhanced.
Human Rights Internet
http://www.hri.ca/
Founded in 1976, Human Rights Internet (HRI) is a world leader in the
exchange of information within the human rights community. HRI's primary
role is to serve the information needs of international scholars, human
rights activists, asylum lawyers, and other organizations via an extensive
documentation center and computerized databases, with access by subscription.
Index on Censorship
http://www.indexoncensorship.org
Index on Censorship, the bi-monthly magazine for free speech, widens
the debates on freedom of expression with some of the world's best writers.
Through interviews, reportage, banned literature and polemic, Index shows
how free speech affects the political issues of the moment.
Witness
http://www.witness.org/
The Witness program, founded in 1992 in partnership with the Lawyers
Committee for Human Rights, Peter Gabriel and the Reebok Foundation, gives
human rights advocates the tools to document human rights abuses. Witness
advances human rights through the use of video and related communications
technologies.
Photos and Images
The United Nations Photo Library contains a selection of the approximately
200,000 historical photos housed in the United Nations Photo Library archives.
The collection dates back to 1945, and the website also contains selected
recent photo coverage. Fair use, purchase and contact information are available
on the site.
The purpose of the cartoon gallery on the Index on Censorship site is to
raise awareness of the current censorship of cartoonists around the world
and to help campaign on their behalf. Copyright for these images belong
to the cartoonists and are reproduced by Index on Censorship solely to
highlight the issue of cartoon censorship; they may not be reproduced or
used in any way for any other means.
United Nations
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