Nina Cascio

International Law Librarian

SUNY Buffalo Law Library

O’Brian Hall

Phone: 645-2633

WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS

RESEARCH STRATEGY

LOOK FOR BOOKS AND OTHER MATERIALS

BISON (UB ONLINE CATALOG)

Use to find books and other materials in the University at Buffalo Libraries Collections

WorldCat

Use to find books and other materials held by thousands of libraries in the US and worldwide. Order materials through InterlibraryLoan if UB does not own. Allow at least 3-4 weeks.

Library Online catalogs from around the world

Allow several weeks for Interlibrary Loan if UB does not own the materials. Ask a reference librarian for assistance.

LOOK FOR ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES

Gale Virtual Reference Library (100 encyclopedias & reference works)

Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law Online

LOOK FOR RESEARCH GUIDES

Guide Sites:

LLRX (Law Library Resource Xchange)

Globalex

ASILGuide to Electronic Resources for International Law

Women’s Human Rights Research Guides & Bibliographies (U Toronto)

A Few Specific Guides/Bibliographies:

International Human Rights of Women (UB)

Women in International Law: Research Sources (L. Louis-Jacques,U. Chicago)

Transnational and Comparative Family Law: Harmonization and Implementation

International Family Law: A Selective Resource Guide (2000)

Human Rights --ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law

United Nations -- ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law

Honour Crimes Project

Feminist Sexual Ethics Project (BrandeisUniversity)

Marriage and divorce; Dating; Sexual orientation; Family; Women's rights; Family planning; Sex education; Sexual harassment; Rape; Child sexual abuse; Clergy sexual misconduct; Sex workers; Trafficking in women. Includes:

Special Focus: Islam

Islam Links

Bibliographies: Islam

LOOK FOR ARTICLES AND OTHER MATERIALS

COMMERCIAL DATABASES

Go to “Resources by Subject” page for UB Libraries

Select databases from a variety of subjects such as Law & Legal Studies, Women’s Studies, Health Sciences,and others. These will lead you to journal articles and other materials.

Law & Legal Studies--International

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals

Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (also on LEXIS and Westlaw)

Legal Trac(also on LEXIS and Westlaw, but with different name: Legal Resource Index)

CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)

Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law Online

Women’s Studies

Gender Watch

Women’s Studies International

Academic Search Complete

History--World

Historical Abstracts

Bibliography of Asian Studies

Dissertations and Theses

Political Science

International Political Science Abstracts

PAIS International Online

CountryWatch

Web of Science (includes Social Sciences Citation Index)

Medicine

Medline

CINAHL

Try the Articles+ (MultiSearch) database at UB! Search up to 100 of the library's online databases as well as the library's BISON Catalogsimultaneously. This is one way to help identify databases at UB that may be helpful for your topic.

To locate journals at UB (once you have a citation to an article):

1. To find out if UB owns a particular journal, type the name of the JOURNAL (NOT the article title) in BISON (UB Online Catalog) as a TITLE search.

2. To find out if UB has access to a particular journal in full text ONLINE, type the name of the JOURNAL in “Electronic Journal Holdings” or “E-Journals”

LOOK FOR NEWS SOURCES

LEXIS-NEXIS (for law students)

Westlaw (for law students)

Factiva

Jurist: Legal News & Research

Global Legal Monitor (Library of Congress)

Links to News & Other Media(UB Guide)

Abyz News Links (worldwide news sources)

HELP! HOW CAN I FIND OUT WHAT’S IN LEXIS AND WESTLAW?

Looking for statutes, cases, treaties, secondary sources, periodical indexes, looseleaf services….or anything else?

In addition to looking at the “Directory” in Westlaw or “Look for a Source” in LEXIS, you can SEARCH THE NAMES AND DESCRIPTIONS of all of the “databases” or “files” in Westlaw and LEXIS. Here’s how:

WESTLAW:

After you sign onto Westlaw, go to the IDEN database. Do a search using words you’d expect to show up in the name or description of potentially useful databases. Scan through the resulting list.

LEXIS-NEXIS:

Go to this Internet site: LEXIS-NEXIS Searchable Directory of Online Sources

Type words you think would be in the name or description of the database in the “DESCRIPTION” box. Alternatively, explore the other choices in the template provided. Click on the name of any databases of interest in the resulting list. Sign on to LEXIS in a separate window. Use the name of the database in the LEXIS “Find a Source” tab to find the database on LEXIS.

LOOK FOR PRIMARY SOURCES (Laws, International Conventions)

Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL – ASIL)

Women’s Human Rights

U. Minnesota Human Rights Library

Women’s Human Rights Conventions

Foreign Law Guide(commercial database)

World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII)

Family Law

Women & Law

Guide to Law Online (Library of Congress)

Global Legal Information Network(Library of Congress)

GLIN is “a public database of official texts of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations.”

International Digest of Health Legislation (WHO)

Click on SUBJECTS; choose “Family Health” or “Human reproduction and population policies”; click on country name. Examine other subjects as well.

Legal Profiles (Islamic Family Law—EmoryUniversity)

Foreign and International Law Sources: An Annotated Guide to Websites Around the World (Harvard)

United Nations Treaty Collection

Full text of treaties; status of treaties deposited with UN Secretary-General.

SIM Caselaw Database(University of UtrechtSchool of Law, Netherlands Institute of Human Rights)

Covering: CCPR, CAT, CERD, CEDAW, ECHR, UNCOM,General Comments, Tribunals

Commonwealth and International Human Rights Case LawDatabases (Interrights)

“…summaries of significant human rights decisions …, from both domestic Commonwealth courts, and from tribunals applying international human rights law such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the European Court of Human Rights and many more”

European Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg)

LOOK FOR REPORTS, DOCUMENTS AND PUBLICATIONS FROM IGOS (Intergovernmental Organizations) and NGOs (Non-governmental Organizations)

UNITED NATIONS

WomenWatch

WomenWatch is the central gateway to information and resources on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women throughout the United Nations system

OSAGI - Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women

DAW - United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women

UNIFEM - United Nations Development Fund for Women

INSTRAW - UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women

Directory of UN Resources on Gender and Women's Issues (WomenWatch)

TO LOCATE TEXT OF CEDAW COUNTRY REPORTS

(some will be online; others will have to be located in the Law Library)

We have the full text of UN Documents in the AV Dept. on the 5th floor of the Law Library. The staff of the AV Dept. can help you find the microfiche, put it on the proper machine to read, and show you how to make copies.

You need to have a UN Document number to get the correct fiche from the microfiche cabinet. To do that, you can search

UNBISNet

Under "Bibliographic Records," click on "New Keyword Search"

Enter Search : (Note---it is Case Sensitive)

UN Document Series Symbol: CEDAW

AND

General Keyword: Name of Country

AND

General Keyword: report*

You will see a list of document titles.

Some will have links to full text.

For those documents that DO NOT have a link to the text, write down the UN Document number. Take number to AV Dept. to locate on microfiche.

Check for AV Dept. hours here:

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Treaty Bodies Database

Charter-Based Bodies Database

.Human Rights Bodies

Universal Periodic Review (a process involving a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years.)

Thematic Mandates

Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences

Global Issues on the UN Agenda

examine the topics: Population, Women, Family, Children, Statistics…

UNIFEM: United Nations Development Fund for Women

EUROPE

European Union—Women’s Rights

A TO Z Index of European Union Web Sites

European Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg)

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (US Helsinki Commission)

THE AMERICAS

Organization of American States

Inter-American Commission of Human Rights

Inter-American Commission of Women

AFRICA
African Union

OTHER IGO & NGO LINKS

Foreign Countries and Intergovernmental Organizations (UB Guide)

Human Rights Watch> Women’s Rights

Be sure to check right hand frame for information on THEMATIC issues.

Human Rights Internet: Organization Databank

International Women’s Rights Action Watch (IWRAW)

Shadow Reporting to UN Treaty Bodies

Links to IWRAW Shadow Reports

Human Rights NGO Links (U. Minn. Human Rights Library)

See: “SPECIFIC TOPICS OF INTEREST”

Women’s Human Rights Resources (U. Toronto)

International Websites (Human Rights Research & Ed. Centre, U. Ottawa)

Hot Peach Pages: International Directory of Domestic Violence Agencies

UB Law Library Homepage:

Internet Resources>By Subject> Women and Law

Internet Resources>By Subject>International Law

CONSULT SEARCH ENGINES

SPECIALIZED SEARCH ENGINES

Search Multiple Human Rights Websites (U. Minn. & Others)

HURISEARCH (HURIDOCS)

Searchable database of NGO publications

Librarians’ Index to the Internet

search for: Human Rights, Women’s Rights…

OneWorld.Net

OneWorld is a community of over 1500 organisations working for social justice

GENERAL SEARCH ENGINES

Google

Yahoo

Ask.com

Bing

Others

SEARCH MULTIPLE SEARCH ENGINES FOR DIFFERENT RESULTS!Compare your Internet search engine results (Google, Yahoo, MSN) at

Thumbshots ranking

BLOG SEARCH ENGINES

All about Blogs (Legal and Otherwise)

Blog Search Engines

General

  • Technorati
  • Google Blog Search
  • Bloglines Search
  • Ice Rocket

Legal

  • BlawgSearch (Justia)
  • Blawg Republic

OTHER WEBSITES…

Population Action International

Population Reference Bureau

Center for Reproductive Rights

see Shadow Reports under “Publications”

Amnesty International

EqualityNow

International Women's Rights Project

OpenEvsys- A web-based system for managing information about human rights violations (new)

Women's Environment and Development Organization

There are many other important organizations and resources. This list is just a start!

Spring 2010