• civil rights

• Declaration of Independence

  / The nature and influence of the Declaration of Independence
• egalitarianism

  / Historical development
• Patrick Henry
• St. John Paul II

  / Election as pope
• United Nations

  / Human rights
• Francisco de Vitoria

  / Vitoria’s anticolonial views
• Harry Hongda Wu

• common law

  / Personal and property rights
• political philosophy

  / American constitutionalism
• capital punishment

  / The abolition movement
• Christianity

  / The problem of slavery and persecution
• civil war

  / Political causes of civil war
• constitution

  / Hobbes on sovereignty
• constitutional law

  / The nature of constitutional law
• corporal punishment
• developmental disability

  / Services, research, and policy
• ethics

  / Rights theories
• homelessness

  / Helping the homeless
• treaty
• just war

  / Just war theory in international law
• liberalism

  / Rights
• prison

  / Prisoners’ rights
• race

  / Human rights versus property rights
• history of Europe

  / Corporate society
• one-party state

• political system

  / Protection of political and social rights
• international law

  / Use of force
• international law

  / Individuals
• Noahide Laws

• Amnesty International
• Center for International Policy
• Doctors Without Borders
• the Elders
• European Court of Human Rights
• Helsinki Accords
• truth commission

• Albania

  / The Stalinist state
• Emilio Fermin Mignone
• Belize

  / Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
• El Salvador

  / Military dictatorships
• Guatemala

  / Civil war years
• Aparicio Méndez
• Soviet Union

  / Foreign policy

Documentary

Human Rights: A Compilation of International Instruments (2002), published by the United Nations, contains the texts of human rights treaties and other instruments established under the auspices of the United Nations Centre for Human Rights. The Yearbook on Human Rights (1946–1988), issued by the Secretariat of the United Nations, documented national and international developments in the human rights field.

Also of interest are Burns H. Weston and Jonathan C. Carlson (eds.), International Law & World Order: Weston & Carlson’s Basic Documents, available in book form (2012) and online; Ian Brownlie and Guy S. Goodwin-Gil (eds.), Brownlie’s Documents on Human Rights (2010); Felix Ermacora, Manfred Nowak, and Hannes Tretter (eds.), International Human Rights: Documents and Introductory Notes (1993); Richard B. Lillich (ed.), International Human Rights Instruments: A Compilation of Treaties, Agreements, and Declarations of Especial Interest to the United States (1990), continually updated; Albert P. Blaustein, Roger S. Clark, and Jay A. Sigler (eds.), Human Rights Sourcebook (1987); and James Avery Joyce, Human Rights: International Documents (1978).

General

Basic works on the subject include the following essays published in Rüdiger Wolfrum (ed.), Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, available in book form (2012) and online: Lorand Bartels, “Trade and Human Rights”; Wolfgang Benedek, “Human Rights Education”; Alan Boyle, “Environment and Human Rights”; Thomas Buergenthal, “Human Rights”; Lori Fisler Damrosch, “Gross and Systematic Human Rights Violations”; Stephan Hobe, “Human Rights, Role of Non-Governmental Organizations”; Eckart Klein, “Human Rights, Activities of International Organizations”; Dinah Shelton, “Human Rights, Remedies”; and Gerald Staberock, “Human Rights, Domestic Implementation.”

Also of interest are Jack Donnelly, International Human Rights, 4th ed. (2013), and Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice (2013); David P. Forsythe, Human Rights in International Relations, 3rd ed. (2012); Conor Gearty and Costas Douzinas (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Human Rights Law (2012); Anna Grear, Redirecting Human Rights: Facing the Challenge of Corporate Legal Humanity (2010); Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (2010); Daniel J. Whelan, Indivisible Human Rights: A History (2010); Frédéric Vanneste, General International Law Before Human Rights Courts: Assessing the Specialty Claims of International Human Rights Law (2010); Richard Falk, Achieving Human Rights (2009); David P. Forsythe (ed.), Encyclopedia of Human Rights (2009); Lynn Hunt, Inventing Human Rights: A History (2007); Upendra Baxi, The Future of Human Rights (2006); Thomas Buergenthal, “The Evolving International Human Rights System,” American Journal of International Law, 100(4):783–807 (2006); Richard Pierre Claude and Burns H. Weston (eds.), Human Rights in the World Community: Issues and Action (2006); Janet Dine and Andrew Fagan, Human Rights and Capitalism: A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Globalisation (2006); Marius Emberland, The Human Rights of Companies: Exploring the Structure of ECHR Protection (2006): Tony Evans and Alison Ayers, “In the Service of Power: The Global Political Economy of Citizenship and Human Rights,” Citizenship Studies, 10(3):289–308 (2006); C.A. Gearty, Can Human Rights Survive? (2006); Diane Otto, “Disconcerting ‘Masculinities’: Reinventing the Gendered Subject(s) of International Human Rights Law,” in Doris Buss and Ambreena S. Manji (eds.), International Law: Modern Feminist Approaches, pp. 105–130 (2005); Hurst Hannum, Guide to International Human Rights Practice, 4th ed. (2004); Micheline Ishay, The History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the Globalization Era (2004); Karen Knop (ed.), Gender and Human Rights (2004); Thomas Buergenthal, Dinah Shelton, and David P. Stewart, International Human Rights in a Nutshell (2002); Anne F. Bayefsky, The UN Human Rights Treaty System: Universality at the Crossroads (2001); Robert F. Drinan, The Mobilization of Shame: A World View of Human Rights (2001); Michael Ignatieff, Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry, ed. by Amy Gutmann (2001); Costas Douzinas, The End of Human Rights: Critical Legal Thought at the Turn of the Century (2000); Richard Falk, Human Rights Horizons: The Pursuit of Justice in a Globalizing World (2000); Michael K. Addo (ed.), Human Rights Standards and the Responsibility of Transnational Corporations (1999); Christopher Jochnick, “Confronting the Impunity of Non-State Actors: New Fields for the Promotion of Human Rights,” Human Rights Quarterly, 21(1):56–79 (1999); two essays in Burns H. Weston and Stephen P. Marks (eds.), The Future of International Human Rights (1999): Martha C. Nussbaum, “Capabilities, Human Rights, and the Universal Declaration,” pp. 25–64; and Burns H. Weston, “The Universality of Human Rights in a Multicultured World: Toward Respectful Decision-Making,” pp. 65–99; John Rawls, The Law of Peoples; with, the Idea of Public Reason Revisited (1999); Hilary Charlesworth, “The Mid-Life Crisis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Washington and Lee Law Review, 55(3):781–796 (1998); Jack Donnelly, International Human Rights, 2nd ed. (1998); William Korey, NGOs and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: A Curious Grapevine (1998); Paul Gordon Lauren, The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen (1998); Michael J. Perry, The Idea of Human Rights: Four Inquiries (1998); S. James Anaya, Indigenous Peoples in International Law (1996); Beverly C. Edmonds and William R. Fernekes, Children’s Rights: A Reference Handbook (1996); Alan Gewirth, The Community of Rights (1996); David Gillies, Between Principle and Practice: Human Rights in North-South Relations (1996); Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, The Refugee in International Law, 2nd ed. (1996); Hurst Hannum, Autonomy, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination: The Accommodation of Conflicting Rights, rev. ed. (1996); Edward Lawson (compiler), Encyclopedia of Human Rights, 2nd ed. (1996); A.H. Robertson and J.G. Merrills, Human Rights in the World: An Introduction to the Study of the International Protection of Human Rights (1996); Henry Shue, Basic Rights: Subsistence, Affluence, and U.S. Foreign Policy, 2nd ed. (1996); Henry J. Steiner and Philip Alston, International Human Rights in Context: Law, Politics, Morals (1996); Asbjørn Eide, Catarina Krause, and Allan Rosas (eds.), Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: A Textbook (1995); Rebecca J. Cook (ed.), Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives (1994); Louis Henkin and John Lawrence Hargrove (eds.), Human Rights: An Agenda for the Next Century (1994); Rein Müllerson, International Law, Rights, and Politics: Developments in Eastern Europe and the CIS (1994); United Nations Centre for Human Rights, United Nations Action in the Field of Human Rights (1994); Andrew Clapham, Human Rights in the Private Sphere (1993); Hurst Hannum and Dana D. Fischer (eds.), U.S. Ratification of the International Covenants on Human Rights (1993); Johannes Morsink, “World War Two and the Universal Declaration,” Human Rights Quarterly, 15:357–405 (1993); Philip Alston (ed.), The United Nations and Human Rights: A Critical Appraisal (1992); Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na‘im (ed.), Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspectives: A Quest for Consensus (1992); Astrid J.M. Delissen and Gerard J. Tanja, Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflict: Challenges Ahead (1991); James C. Hathaway, The Law of Refugee Status (1991); Carlos Santiago Nino, The Ethics of Human Rights (1991); Charlotte Bunch, “Women’s Rights as Human Rights: Towards a Re-Vision of Human Rights,” Human Rights Quarterly, 12:486–498 (1990); Antonio Cassese, Human Rights in a Changing World (1990); Louis Henkin, The Age of Rights (1990); Bertrand Binoche, Critiques des droits de l’homme (1989), a critique of human rights; David P. Forsythe, Human Rights and World Politics, 2nd ed., rev. (1989); James Crawford (ed.), The Rights of Peoples (1988); Theodor Meron, Human Rights in Internal Strife: Their International Protection (1987), and Human Rights Law-Making in the United Nations (1986); R.J. Vincent, Human Rights and International Relations (1986); Jack Donnelly, The Concept of Human Rights (1985); Theodor Meron, Human Rights in International Law: Legal and Policy Issues (1984); Theodor Meron (ed.), Law: Legal and Policy Issues, 2 vol. (1984, reprinted 1992); Karel Vasak and Philip Alston (eds.), The International Dimensions of Human Rights, 2 vol., trans. from French (1982); Richard Falk, Human Rights and State Sovereignty (1981); Louis Henkin (ed.), The International Bill of Rights: The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1981); Myres S. McDougal, Harold D. Lasswell, and Lung-chu Chen, Human Rights and World Public Order: The Basic Policies of an International Law of Human Dignity (1980); Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, The Political Economy of Human Rights, 2 vol. (1979); Adamantia Pollis and Peter Schwab (eds.), Human Rights: Cultural and Ideological Perspectives (1979); Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously (1977); Richard Pierre Claude (ed.), Comparative Human Rights (1976); Manouchehr Ganji, The Realization of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: Problems, Policies, Progress (1975); Maurice Cranston, What Are Human Rights? (1973); John Carey, UN Protection of Civil and Political Rights (1970); Richard B. Bilder, “Rethinking International Human Rights: Some Basic Questions,” Wisconsin Law Review, 1969(1):171–217 (1969); József Halász (ed.), Socialist Concept of Human Rights (1966; originally published in Hungarian, 1965); Egon Schwelb, Human Rights and the International Community: The Roots and Growth of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948–1963 (1964); and Hersch Lauterpacht, International Law and Human Rights (1950, reissued 2013).

United Nations instruments and arrangements

Notable works include the following essays published in Rüdiger Wolfrum (ed.), Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, available in book form (2012) and online: Antje C. Berger, “Special Rapporteurs of Human Rights Bodies”; Ineke Boerefijn, “Vienna World Conference on Human Rights (2003),” and “United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights”; Hilary Charlesworth, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)”; Eckart Klein, “United Nations, Specialized Agencies”; David Kretzmer, “Human Rights, State Reports”; Beate Rudolf, “United Nations Commision on Human Rights/United Nations Human Rights Council”; Dinah Shelton, “Human Rights, Individual Communications/Complaints”; Peter-Tobias Stoll, “Human Rights, Treaty Bodies”; and Christian Tomuschat, “Human Rights Committee.”

Also of interest is Louis Henkin (ed.), The International Bill of Human Rights: The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1981). 

Regional instruments, arrangements, and perspectives

Dinah Shelton, “The Promise of Regional Human Rights Systems,” in the collection edited by Weston and Marks, cited in the section on general works above, pp. 351–398; Peter Van Ness (ed.), Debating Human Rights: Critical Essays from the United States and Asia (1999); Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Human Rights and the Search for Community (1995); Burns H. Weston, Robin Ann Lukes, and Kelly M. Hnatt, “Regional Human Rights Regimes: A Comparison and Appraisal,” Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, 20(4):585–637 (October 1987).