Resources on HUMAN RIGHTS
Section i
"The human rights of all women and the girl-child must form an integral part of United Nations human rights activities. Intensified efforts are needed to integrate the equal status and the human rights of all women and girls into the mainstream of United Nations system-wide activities and to address these issues regularly and systematically throughout relevant bodies and mechanisms."
Beijing Platform for Action.
Websites and Electronic Resources
http://amnestyusa.org/women/index.html#program
The Women’s Human Rights Program focuses on promoting women’s human rights within Amnesty's mandate. It seeks to stop the particular violations of civil and political rights that women and girls experience. This website focuses on goals for stopping women’s human rights violations, actions to be taken, campaigns, news, publications, and links to Amnesty International. Available in English and Spanish.
http://www.equalitynow.org/brochure_eng_what.html
Equality Now is an international human rights organization dedicated to action for the civil, political, economic, and social rights of girls and women. This website addresses issues of concern including rape, trafficking, domestic violence, female infanticide, genital mutilation, reproductive rights, gender discrimination, political representation, sexual harassment, and pornography. Available in English, Spanish, French, and Arabic.
http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/
The Center for Women’s Global Leadership was founded as a project of Douglass College and is a unit of the Institute for Women’s Leadership (IWL) ñ a consortium of six women’s programs at Rutgers University, NJ, USA. Since 1989, the Global Center has fostered women’s leadership in the area of human rights through women’s global leadership institutes, strategic planning activities, and international mobilization campaigns. This website provides information about policy and advocacy programs, leadership development and global education programs, publications, news, articles, and links to other women’s human rights websites. Publications are available in English, Spanish, and French.
http://www.hri.ca/women/index.shtml
The Human Rights Internet is a gateway to Human Rights on the Web. This website contains a range of human rights resources and information. These include publications, programs, United Nations documents, an internet directory, education resources, forums, databases, calendars, events, and a summary of the International Women’s Human Rights Movement (1995-2000).
http://www.hrweb.org
Human Rights Web is a website dedicated to linking all those seeking to promote human rights to available resources. These include databases, UN sites and documents, email lists and newsgroups, and regional Human Rights organizations in Africa, Asia, Australia and Pacific Islands, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America.
http://www.hrw.org/about/projects/women.html
Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world, standing with victims and activists against discrimination, investigating and exposing human rights violations, challenging governments to end abusive practices, and enlisting support for the cause of human rights for all. This Women’s Rights Division website provides information dealing with Women’s Human Rights, breaking news from around the world, campaigns including Beijing Plus Five, publications, research and advocacy, international film festival, and additional resources with links to other human rights websites.
http://www.ichrdd.ca/111/english/contentsEnglish.html
The International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development has been involved in the defense and promotion of women’s human rights since its inception in 1988. This website provides information about programmes in all parts of the world, publications, and links to Women’s Rights websites.
http://www.inet.co.th/org/gaatw
The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) was formed at the International Workshop on Migration and Traffic in Women held in Thailand in 1994. Since then, GAATW has aimed to ensure that the human rights of trafficked persons are respected and protected by authorities and agencies. This website provides information on GAATW activities, publications, bulletins, newsletters, resource center, campaigns (available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Thai), and links to other relevant organisations.
http://www.igc.org/iwraw
The International Women’s Rights Action Watch (IWRAW) was organized in 1985 at the world conference of women in Nairobi, Kenya to monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This website provides information concerning women’s human rights, publications, NGO Shadow Reports, and Beijing Plus Five.
http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/diana/
Women's Human Rights has internet links on the topic of women's human rights to make it easier to locate substantive research on the Internet. The links are divided into categories and include annotated bibliographic references to scholarly articles, annotated references to conventions and UN Reports, NGO reports, case law and legislation (all with links to full text where available), and links to other websites with annotations.
http://www.MADRE.org/buttons.htm
MADRE is an international women’s human rights organisation that works in partnership with women’s community-based groups to address issues of health, economic development and other human rights. MADRE provides resources, training and support to sister organizations. This website contains information on MADRE ís worldwide programs, mission, human rights laws, and campaigns. Available in English and Spanish.
http://www.migrantwatch.org
Migrants Rights International (MRI) is the independent global monitoring body focusing on human rights of migrants founded in Cairo in 1994. Its purposes are to promote recognition and respect for the rights of all migrants. This website provides information about campaigns, world conferences, bulletins, articles, and other resources dealing with the human rights of migrants.
http://www.pdhre.org/rights/ women.html
The People’s Decade of Human Rights Education (PDHR) has dedicated this website to human rights learning for social and economic change. Human rights of women are organized into the Beijing Platform for Action’s Critical Areas of concern. This website provides information including CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action, publications, conventions, and small grants for Human Rights Seminars.
http://www.sigi.org
Sisterhood Is Global Institute (SIGI) is an international non-governmental, non-profit organization that works toward empowering women and developing leadership through human rights education. SIGI’s network of more than 1300 individuals in 70 countries, supports and promotes women’s rights at the local, national, regional, and global levels. SIGI’s website provides specific resources for human rights education, including manuals, training guides, publications, newsletters, events, and action alerts.
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu6/2/fs22.htm
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has declared that the human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. This website provides a 32-page report on the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the implementations and reservations, in addition to UN publications of Women’s Human Rights.
http://www.whrnet.org
Women's Human Rights Net is a valuable on-line resource for providing information about women's human rights throughout the world. Its section on Capacity Building includes information on available resources and training programs in areas such as: leadership development; institution building; fundraising; human rights documentation; and information and communications technologies. Available in English, Spanish, and French.
http://www.wld.org
Women, Law and Development Inter-national is a non-profit. non-governmental organization that promotes women’s full and equal participation by advancing universal respect for human rights, expanding rights education and legal literacy among women, and challenging discriminatory socio-economic barriers. This website contains links to numerous Human Rights Organizations, and information about the various programs and publications.
www.WorldAdvocacy.com
Worldadvocacy.com is the world's premier list of advocacy groups.
Selected Books
Many of these publications can be ordered online at http://www.womenink.org
Rights of Women: A Guide to the Most Important UN Treaties on Women’s Human Rights.
International Women’s Tribune Centre, Anne S. Walker, Vicki Semler et al, eds.
Written in simple non-legal language, Rights of Women provides a comprehensive review of women’s human rights as defined by the most important UN human rights treaties. It takes a "right by right" approach in describing the relevant conventions and includes effective strategies for using international law to better women’s human rights from hosting a tribunal to building a human rights community via the Internet. Includes a list of women’s human rights resources, regional ratification charts indicating which country has signed which treaties, and the full text of key international human rights documents. For legal scholars and local activists alike, this reader-friendly book provides both the theory and the tools for championing women’s human rights.
1998. 144 pages. US$15.95
Claiming Our Rights: A Manual for Women’s Human Rights in Muslim Societies
Mahnaz Afkhami and Haleh Vaziri
This training manual is designed to help grassroots women in Muslim societies learn about the universal human rights concepts found in the major international human rights documents. Activities are structured around questions and verses from the Qurían with respect to a variety of topics, including the family; bodily integrity; education; employment; privacy, religious beliefs and free expression; and political participation.
1996. 154 pages. WE306Z. US$18.95
Local Action/Global Change: Learning About the Human Rights of Women and Girls
Julie Mertus with Mallika Dutt and Nancy Flowers
This comprehensive training manual, role includes the whole spectrum of women’s human rights in an ìinteractive format by combining the development of rights awareness with issue-oriented activities that include discussions -play, story-telling and creative expression in art and music. It provides substantive information about human rights and shows how they are covered by international agreements.
1999. 254 pages. US$25.95
Women and Human Rights: The Basic Documents
Center for the Study of Human Rights
This compact book brings together all the United Nations conventions and declarations that relate to women’s human rights. Whether you want to know about the rights of refugees or which international convention guarantees equal pay for equal work, you will find the information here.
1996. 251 pages. US$18.00
Without Reservation: The Beijing Tribunal on Accountability for Women's Human Rights
Niamh Reilly (Ed.)
Without Reservation documents the last in a series of tribunals held at major UN world conferences (September 1995). 22 testimonies address a range of women's human rights violations in specific categories: conflict situations; family issues; health and bodily integrity; and political persecution.
1996. 190 pages. WE256Z US$15.00
Women’s Human Rights Step by Step:
A Practical Guide For Using International Law And Mechanisms To Defend Women's Human Rights.
Women, Law and Development International/ Women’s Rights Project.
This book provides an overall guide to human rights mechanisms and strategies at all levels and in all regions. It describes, in simple language, the concept and content of human rights law and its applicability to women, and provides tools which can be adapted to suit different legal and political contexts. Case studies; glossary; list of instruments and ratification’s; resources.
1997. 200 pages. WE304Z. US$27.50
Many of these publications can be ordered online at http://www.womenink.org