Human Rights and the Internet:
The Website of the Office of the
High Commissioner For Human Rights

Dr. Joshua Castellino, Irish Centre for Human Rights,
NUI Galway, Republic of Ireland
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  1. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: the Mandate
  2. The UNHCHR Web Page
    1. About OHCHR
    2. Human Rights Bodies
    3. Legal Instruments
    4. Human Rights Defenders
    5. Humanitarian law
    6. Fund Raising
    7. Human Rights Issues
    8. Databases
    9. Meetings / Events
    10. Human Rights around the World
    11. Publications
  3. Conclusion
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The proliferation of information on the internet has provided researchers in different fields with access to information that is quick, usually reliable and inexpensive. This is also true of lawyers working with human rights issues. While there are a host of websites available with a plethora of databases that can be accessed without prior subscription, the focus of this paper will be on the site maintained by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The reason for this choice of website is the scope and breath of the site itself as well as its focus on legal instruments and quasi-legal bodies working within the field. Rather than attempting to include a variety of different web-sites, this paper suggests that this particular site maintained by the Office of the High Commissioner provides an ideal starting point for lawyers or researchers seeking to access information about the international legal system for the protection of human rights, and its relevance in a given context.

Thus the paper itself will examine in some depth, the avenues of information available on this website before summing up its importance to lawyers working in domestic law but seeking to access international human rights norms and regimes. Towards this end it is first necessary to briefly introduce the Office of the High Commissioner and its mandate in international human rights law. The study of this mandate makes it apparent that this is one of the most respected bodies within international human rights and in this sense it provides an authoritative selection and interpretation of issues within human rights law. While other avenues for human rights research exist, they could form supplementary sources of information to these, in pursuit of the implementation of different standards. [For instance NGO web-sites such as Amnesty International, www.ai.org, or Human Rights Watch, www.hrw.org.

For more see the resources hosted on the University of Minnesota site: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/africa. One caveat that also needs to be addressed at the outset is that the website of the Office of the High Commissioner seeks to provide an umbrella to activities undertaken under the international rather than regional mandate. Thus regional organisations such as the African Commission of Human Rights, the Council of Europe, the European Union,www.coe.int/portalT.asp, the Organisation for Security & Co-operation in Europe, http://europa.eu.int, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, etc. are not directly covered within this site although the programmes undertaken by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights inevitably interacts with the work of regional bodies.

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1. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: the Mandate

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was created in 1990 informed by the need to streamline and co-ordinate an international human rights regime that was rapidly expanding. At Geneva in 2000, the mission of the office was identified as being: "to protect and promote all human rights for all."

The mandate of the organisation derives directly from the United Nations Charter of 1945, The Vienna Declaration & Programme of Action, which recognised the need for such an office; and General Assembly Resolution 48/141 which put the office in place. Further UN reform in 1997 saw the amalgamation of the Centre for Human Rights under the auspices of the High Commissioner’s Office. The Office of the High Commissioner is thus the inter-governmental body that oversees the human rights mechanism, and in terms of human rights research it has certain key functions that are reflected in its functions.

Thus the Office:

  1. Promotes universal enjoyment of all human rights by giving practical effect to the will and resolve of the world community as expressed by the United Nations;
  2. Plays the leading role on human rights issues and emphasizes the importance of human rights at the international and national levels;
  3. Promotes international cooperation for human rights;
  4. Stimulates and coordinates action for human rights throughout the United Nations system;
  5. Promotes universal ratification and implementation of international standards;
  6. Assists in the development of new norms;
  7. Supports human rights organs and treaty monitoring bodies;
  8. Responds to serious violations of human rights;
  9. Undertakes preventive human rights action;
  10. Promotes the establishment of national human rights infrastructures;
  11. Undertakes human rights field activities and operations;
  12. Provides education, information advisory services and technical assistance in the field of human rights.
Having established the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner it is now possible to turn to the information provided on the website that is of direct use and relevance to the practice of human rights worldwide. The home page of the Office of the High Commissioner is http://www.unhchr.ch .

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2. The Web Page www.unhchr.ch

Available in French, Spanish and English the site is designed to be able to provide the latest news with regards to ongoing human rights activities as well as being a source of documents that can be accessed with regard to specific human rights mandates. These mandates, traditionally divided into treaty based and charter based bodies, are each contained in separate databases. The searches enabled at the top right hand corner of the web-page are word sensitive though for specific searches the ‘More Search Options’ link is more useful. The Site Map and Index links are useful and can guide visitors through the various sources of information available on the site. This analysis will focus on the Site Map as being the best overall summary of the site. According to this map the site is divided into nine sections:

  1. About OHCHR
  2. A section that contains information about the office itself as well as providing an updated list of vacancies, internships and fellowship programmes hosted by the Office. In addition it also posts other documents produced by the Office that may be useful to researchers seeking specific information on reports written concurrent to events organised by the Office such as the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (2001) or the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights of 1993.

  3. Human Rights Bodies
  4. This section contains a listing of the different human rights bodies that are accessible from this site, including their mandates, the reports submitted before them, and recommendations made by them. The section is most useful to gain an overview of the activities being considered by the different bodies and provides a quick insight into the direction that each of these bodies is taking vis-à-vis particular human rights issues. Under this section it is also possible to access particular reports and working papers submitted to the different committees. The Bodies represented are: the Commission on Human Rights, The Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the Economic and Social Council, the General Assembly Third Committee and the Treaty Monitoring Bodies. Thus this section represents the breadth of human rights bodies with the reports and issues they are considering each represented on individual pages with hyperlinks.

  5. Legal Instruments
  6. This section provides information on the specific obligations in treaty format undertaken by states with regards to the protection and promotion of human rights. It includes the Charter of the United Nations of 1945 from which the general human rights mandate is derived, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the International Covenants for Human Rights of 1966 and a full listing of other human rights instruments. This full listing is framed under specific headings that are useful and informative to a researcher pursuing a specific enquiry. The broad headings under which the treaties are listed (in full-text format along with information concerning ratification, reservations, interpretive declarations, declarations and acceptances of reservations) are:
    1. Human Rights Defenders
    2. Proclamation of Teheran
    3. Right of self-determination
    4. Prevention of discrimination
    5. Rights of women
    6. Rights of the child
    7. Slavery, servitude, forced labour and similar institutions and practices
    8. Human rights in the administration of justice
    9. Freedom of information
    10. Freedom of association
    11. Employment
    12. Marriage, Family and Youth
    13. Social welfare, progress and development
    14. Right to enjoy culture, international cultural development and co-operation
    15. Nationality, statelessness, asylum and refugees
    16. War crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide
    17. Humanitarian law

  7. Human Rights Defenders
  8. Proclamation of Teheran
    Right of self-determination
    Prevention of discrimination
    Rights of women
    Rights of the child
    Slavery, servitude, forced labour and similar institutions and practices
    Human rights in the administration of justice
    Freedom of information
    Freedom of association
    Employment
    Marriage, Family and Youth
    Social welfare, progress and development
    Right to enjoy culture, international cultural development and co-operation
    Nationality, statelessness, asylum and refugees
    War crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide

  9. Humanitarian Law
  10. This provides not only a comprehensive listing of existing human rights standards under the different headings identified but also provides an accurate snap-shot of the extent to which this human rights regime is binding upon the state parties. In addition the treaty texts identify any enforcement mechanisms created by each instrument and the objections and declarations made concomitant to their coming into force. It needs to be highlighted that not every instrument under this listing is legally binding, with many declarations included as well. These declarations while not having the compelling legal force of a negotiated and ratified treaty are nonetheless indicators of the direction of human rights thought within the international community.

  11. Fund Raising
  12. This section contains the annual appeal for funds and also a listing of the use of resources by the Office of the High Commissioner. The report, filed annually is a good indicator of the breadth of the activities undertaken by the Office of the High Commissioner. Also included are appeals for voluntary or trust funds and appeals to civil society. The utility of this section for a lawyer seeking information on human rights lies in the provision of the breadth of activities undertaken by the High Commissioner’s Office, as contained in the Annual Report.

  13. Human Rights Issues
  14. Rather than breaking new ground this section represents a useful and helpful, index-driven way of portraying information. It identifies different human rights issues alphabetically and then guides the researcher through the documentation available on the website. This includes a list of documents pertinent to the subject area, a section that reports the latest developments, and one that points to other links that might be useful for specific research.

  15. Databases
  16. For the lawyer looking for specific information to help their client access international bodies, this section is perhaps most useful. Divided in the traditional human rights manner of Treaty Based Bodies and Charter Based bodies, it not only identifies the available routes of international petition, but also provides detailed analysis of the different expert bodies with regard to the discussion taking place within them, the general recommendations or observations of the Committees with regards to the application procedures, the scope and extent of the specific bodies and their mandates, and the jurisprudence that has come before them. Therefore this section in conjunction with the section on human rights issues and the section outlining the full listing of treaties, provides a thorough treatment of the avenues of petition available within international human rights law (not including regional systems), and also highlights the potential direction in which the law and principles are evolving.

    This section also contains a news-room database which can be accessed through simple searches, and a listing of institutions that provide human rights education globally. The latter is particularly useful since the institutions listed could provide answers to specific queries that might surface.

  17. Meetings / Events
  18. The prime purpose of this section is to publicise the annual calendar of human rights events. It also contains information about specifically designated human rights days, information that is perhaps of more use to activists and campaigners rather than lawyers seeking application of human rights law.

  19. Human Rights around the World
  20. The presence of the OHCHR globally and the potential for technical cooperation and regional strategies of the organisation are reflected in this section. It also contains an index by country of the contact details of the representatives of the office.

  21. Publications
  22. The final section is particularly useful for information at a glance on various issues. The Office has created fact sheets and training series that identify various issues of human rights. The fact sheets provide information on specific rights while the training series identify programmes where specific human rights skills may be enhanced.
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3. Conclusion

With information easily available in different spheres it is most appropriate that lawyers too have access to relevant information that pertains to the international human rights legal regime. Indeed such access to information on a global basis is imperative for the efficient functioning of the international regime of human rights. This particular website is a useful starting point for such research. By virtue of its expansive width on the regime for human rights it provides lawyers with a useful insight into the mechanics of the international regime. In this context a lawyer looking for specific information on a rights violation of his/her client could access the relevant human rights issues listing and seek out the international dimensions of the violation concerned. This would then enable a quick view of the mechanisms that exist at international level. In conjunction with access to the databases, (especially the treaty based database which has the most sophisticated quasi-legal bodies) this would enable access to information on the avenues available for international petition. In addition the listing of human rights treaties provide rich material than could be useful for the framing of arguments in domestic courts. Since human rights treaties are legally binding upon those that have ratified it, they could provide arguments that would be admissible in domestic courts. Even in instances where dualist states have not passed corresponding legislation adopting the specific treaties into domestic law, these treaties provide compelling enunciations of the obligations adopted by the state at international level, and by the Vienna Convention on the Laws of Treaties states would be bound to respect their object and purpose.

Thus in summarising how this website can assist a lawyer working with human rights issues within the domestic realm the following issues can be highlighted:

  1. International Human Rights Standards vary in their capacity to bind states. Treaties and Conventions that have been signed and ratified provide clear obligations that states are obliged to respect. Information about these treaties and conventions can be accessed from this website. In addition other standards that may not yet be codified into treaties are also reflected on this site and provide useful indicators of the direction of consensus at international level.
  2. International Standards of Petition are available in many specific instances under the Charter Based and Treaty Based bodies. These would enable the lawyer to consider this as an avenue providing that the state concerned has met the requirements specified in the various instruments, and that the petitioner has fulfilled other requirements concomitant to individual petition.
  3. State parties are often monitored through the examination of regular reports to the various commissions and committees. These reports, and the recommendations and observations concomitant to them, are indicators of the extent to which the state party is fulfilling its international obligations. It can thus provide domestic lawyers with access to the arguments and suggestions of experts that can be used in specific instances.
  4. By creating databases containing different institutions working in the field of human rights education, a domestic lawyer may be able to address his/her query to a specific organisation. This would enable quick and inexpensive access to specific information that might guide a lawyer in framing their argument.
  5. The access to specific fact sheets and training programmes is useful to those looking to hone particular skills in international human rights law. This would also provide the domestic lawyer with different directions in which to pursue his/her own legal work.
Thus the web-page of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights provides easy access to the existing human rights mechanisms. It also provides links to other web-sites that can guide the researcher in pursuit of a specific inquiry. Rather than listing these individual sites, it is possible to arrive at them through the auspices of the issue based hyperlinks from this site.

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NOTES:

[1] For instance NGO web-sites such as Amnesty International, www.ai.org, or Human Rights Watch, www.hrw.org.

[2] For more see the resources hosted on the University of Minnesota site: www1.umn.edu/humanrts/africa.

[3] www.coe.int/portalT.asp.

[4] europa.eu.int.

[5] www.osce.org.

[6] www.cidh.oas.org/Default.htm.

[7] Mission Statement, Geneva 2000.

[8] Specifically Articles 1, 55 & 56.

[9] For the Vienna Declaration see www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/A.CONF.157.23.En?OpenDocument 12th July 1993>.

[10] GAOR 48/141 of 20th December 1993.

[11] As required by UN Doc. A/51/950, para. 79.

[12] See www.unhchr.ch/html/hchr.htm.

[13] Vienna Convention on the Laws of Treaties Vienna Convention on the Laws of Treaties 1969 see:www.sovereignty.net/un-treaties/treaties.txt.

[14] According to the doctrine of pacta sunt servanda a state is the servant of the pact it has signed. This doctrine is usually invoked in the context of states that have only signed and not ratified specific treaties. Even in these instances states are bound to respect the object and purpose of the treaty they have signed. However its application is even more pertinent in the context of treaties that have been ratified but not yet adopted into domestic legislation in dualist states.

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