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International Human Rights of Women -- Web Resources (FREE): IGOs: Intergovernmental Organizations

Resources on the international human rights of women, including reproductive rights.
Last Updated: Feb 21, 2024 11:49 AM

Look for Reports, Documents and Publications from IGOs

LOOK FOR REPORTS, DOCUMENTS AND PUBLICATIONS FROM IGOS (Intergovernmental Organizations)

Recommendation: thoroughly examine the website of each IGO and NGO. They are content-rich and hold many hidden treasures.

Identify additional organizations using a search engine such as this one:

Intergovernmental Organization Search Engine
“…searches across hundreds of IGO websites, enabling users to research topics such as active IGOs working on HIV/AIDS in Uganda….”

United Nations (UN)

United Nations 

UN Women
http://www.unwomen.org/ This entity merges and builds on the  work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system, which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment:

                UNIFEM - United Nations Development Fund for Women

                INSTRAW - UN Int’l Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women 
              

UN Population Fund
http://www.unfpa.org/public/

 

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (adopted 18 December 1979, entered into force 3 September 1981) 1249 UNTS 13. .

 

UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (adopted 13 December 2006, entered into force 3 May 2008) GAOR 61st Session Supp 49 vol 1, 65. http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml  http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/resguide/r61.htm  --- Scroll down to A/RES/61/106

Fourth World Conference on Women ‘Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action’ (1995)

UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women ‘General Recommendation No 19: Violence against Women’ (30 January 1992) GAOR 47th Session Supp 38, 1. 

 

UNGA ‘Follow-up to the Outcome of the Millennium Summit’ (15 September 2005) UN Doc A/60/L.1. http://www.un.org/en/ga/62/plenary/millennium/bkg.shtml

 

UN HRC ‘Communication No. 1153/2003 Karen Noelia Llantoy Huamán v Peru’ (24 October 2005) GAOR 61st Session Supp 40 vol 2, 214. http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/undocs/1153-2003.html

 

UN HRC ‘General Comment No 28: Equality of Rights between Men and Women (Art. 3)’ (29 March 2000) GAOR 55th Session Supp 40 vol 1, 133.  (see pdf: CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.10)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

UN International Human Rights Instruments ‘Compilation of General Comments and General Recommendations Adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies’ (8 May 2006) UN Doc HRI/GEN/1/Rev.8

Locate CEDAW Country Reports

TO LOCATE TEXT OF CEDAW COUNTRY REPORTS follow these steps:

Go to UNBISNet
http://unbisnet.un.org/
1. Under "Bibliographic Records," click on "New Keyword Search"
2. Enter Search  (Note---it is Case Sensitive):
             UN Document Series Symbol: CEDAW
AND
            General Keyword: Name of Country
AND
            General Keyword: report*

3.You will see a list of document titles.
Some will have links to full text.

4.For those documents that DO NOT have a link to the text, write down the UN Document number.

5.Go to the UN ODS ( Official Document System of the UN) ) database http://documents.un.org/

6. Click on “Welcome”. Click on “ADVANCED SEARCH”.

7. Type the UN Document number in the “symbol” field. Click “SEARCH”. If results are not satisfactory, re-do the search typing only the first part of the UN Document number in the “symbol” field, and then click on “right” “symbol truncation”.

8. Click on relevant result(s). Note link to display or download document.

 

Europe

Europe

The Americas

THE AMERICAS

Organization of American States
http://www.oas.org/en/default.asp
            Interamerican Commission on Human Rights
            http://www.cidh.oas.org/defaulte.htm

              Inter-American Commission of Women
              http://www.oas.org/cim/default.asp

 

                           Statute of the Inter-American Commission of Women
                           http://www.jus.uio.no/english/services/library/treaties/02/2-04/oas_statute_cim.xml

 

American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (approved 10 December 1948) (1949) 43 AJIL Supp 133. http://www.oas.org/juridico/english/ga-res98/eres1591.htm

American Convention on Human Rights (signed 22 November 1969, entered into force 18 July 1978) 1144 UNTS 123 (Pact of San José).https://www.oas.org/dil/treaties_b-32_american_convention_on_human_rights.pdf

 Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (done 14 November 1988, entered into force 16 November 1999) (1989) 28 ILM 156 (Protocol of San Salvador). http://www.oas.org/juridico/english/treaties/a-52.html

 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (entered into force 5 March 1995) 33 IL M 1534 (1994) (Belém do Pará Convention). http://www.oas.org/juridico/english/treaties/a-61.html

 

 

Africa

AFRICA (AU, formerly the OAU)

African Union
http://www.au.int/en/

African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
http://www.achpr.org/ 

African Commission Case Law Analyzer
http://caselaw.ihrda.org/

 

African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (adopted 27 June 1981, entered into force 21 October 1986) 1520 UNTS 217 (Banjul Charter). http://www.achpr.org/english/_info/charter_en.html

 

Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (adopted 11 July 2003, entered into force 25 November 2005) OAU Doc CAB/LEG/66.6 reprinted in (2001) 1 AfrHumRtsLJ 53 (Maputo Protocol). http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/africa/protocol-women2003.html

World Health Organization

WHO

Sexual & Reproductive Health
--Topics
-----Publications (most can be downloaded)


e.g., Considerations for Formulating Reproductive Health Laws (2d ed.)


e.g.,WHO ‘Creating a Supportive Legislative and Regulatory Framework’ Reproductive Health and Research Policy Brief 3-- 2006 http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/general/pbrief3/en/index.html

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights & more

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

            Treaty Bodies Database 
          http://tb.ohchr.org/default.aspx
                   Useful for locating CEDAW and other country reports

            Charter-Based Bodies Database
          http://ap.ohchr.org/Documents/gmainec.aspx

.           Human Rights Bodies
          http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/Pages/HumanRightsBodies.aspx

            Universal Periodic Review
            (a process involving a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. )
          https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/upr/upr-home

            Thematic Mandates
          http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/special/themes.htm

                   Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
                        http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/women/rapporteur/index.htm

 Global Issues on the UN Agenda
http://www.un.org/issues/
            examine the topics: Population, Women, Family, Children, Statistics…

 

Try this portal for UN material as well:

Bayefsky.com
http://www.bayefsky.com/ 
Information on the UN human rights treaty system & its monitoring treaty bodies. Includes reports & documents from human rights treaty monitoring bodies.