Monthly Archives: December 2007

Searching for Human Rights Materials on the Internet

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I’ve received more questions about finding human rights articles online.

For those conducting academic research (UConn Human Rights Minors, this means you!)  subcription databases, available through the library’s website, such as Gale Academic OneFile, Lexis Nexis, and CIAO, are the best places to look for human rights articles.  Another option is to browse through peer-reviewed human rights journals, such as the Journal of Human Rights, Human Rights Quarterly, etc.  You can find a listing of human rights journals and databases available through UConn’s library on the Journal Articles page of the Human Rights Subject Guide, http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/bysubject/humanrights/hrdatabases.html

For those who do not have access to the subscription resources of a university, there are some great places to look for journal articles and human rights information online.  The Key Websites page on the Human Rights Subject Guide has a listing of good places to start your online search. I’ve listed just a few examples here.  Individual NGOs often provide information and publish reports as well. 

The University of Minnesota Human Rights Library includes a wide array of human rights documents, treaties, and other information. 

The HuriSearch Portal is a search engine designed for human rights activists, students, and educators, and it searches over 4, 000 human rights websites for information. 

Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) is an international non-governmental organization that supports human rights learning and has information on a variety of human rights themes.

For a more comprehensive listing of places to look on the internet for human rights information, please check the Key Websites page on the University of Connecticut Libraries Human Rights Subject Guide .

Searching for Human Rights Archival Materials in Homer

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Here are some search tricks for finding human rights materials at the Dodd Research Center!

Go to the main HOMER page, http://homerweb.lib.uconn.edu/

Click on the “Advanced Search” tab.

Then, click “Set More Limits” in the lower right corner. That will bring you to a new menu. In the Location box, scroll down and select “Dodd/Archives & Special Collections“, and then click “Set Limits.”

That will take you back to the advanced search page. From there, enter your search terms, such as “Latin America” and “human rights,” etc.

To search within the Human Rights Internet Collection, use “Human Rights Internet” as one of your search terms.

60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour marks Human Rights Day 2007 and launches a year-long campaign leading to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

10 December 2007 — UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, issued the following statement to mark Human Rights Day which is commemorated on 10 December.

As we jointly celebrate today not only Human Rights Day but also launch the year-long campaign leading to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we have cause to celebrate the accomplishments made, since 1948, on the road to ensuring fundamental freedoms for each one of us.

The Universal Declaration and its core values- inherent human dignity, justice, non-discrimination, equality, fairness and universality- apply to everyone, everywhere, always.

In all parts of the world, individuals, groups, organisations, and Governments have striven to transform into reality the promises contained in the Universal Declaration. Many have died in the pursuit of these ideals.

Today is also the day to reflect upon our individual and collective failures to stand up against violence, racism, xenophobia, torture, repression of unpopular views and injustices of all sorts.

In today’s growing divisions between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the vulnerable, the technologically advanced and the illiterate, the aggressors and the victims, the relevance of the Declaration and the universality of the enshrined rights need to be loudly reaffirmed.

In the course of this year, unprecedented efforts must be made to ensure that every person in the world can rely on just laws for his or her protection. In advancing all human rights for all, we will move towards the greatest fulfilment of human potential, a promise which is at the heart of the Universal Declaration.

(United Nations Press Release)

Christopher Gunness Lecture and “Pentecost” Performance

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Christopher Gunness, spokesperson for the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, will lecture on “Chaos, Refugees, and Gaza Today” on Thursday, December 6 at 4 p.m. at Jorgensen Gallery, prior to a 7:30  p.m. performance of the play, Pentecost.  Pentecost, written by Tony Award-winning playwright David Edgar  is being performed November 29 through December 7 at Jorgensen.   A brief synopsis of the play is below:

Tony Award-winning playwright David Edgar’s (Nicholas Nickleby) epic play Pentecost  is one part artistic whodunit and one part hostage thriller.  The authenticity of a newly-discovered painting, found in an Eastern European church, presents a tantalizing puzzle that could permanently alter our concepts of art.  Cultures clash in the debate among a curator, art historian, church official and even tourists who are then suddenly taken hostage by a group of asylum-seeking refugees from a variety of world trouble spots.  David Edgar’s extraordinary language is often compared to Bernard Shaw’s in this incendiary collision between art and politics that New York Times critic Alvin Klein said, “sets the brain spinning in the highest gear; there’s no controlling where wonderment will fly or land.” Contains adult sexual content and male nudity.

Gunness is a former BBC News reporter and served as UN spokesman in Sarajevo during the Balkan Wars. He will speak on chaos, refugees, and US foreign policy in today’s Gaza.  His talk will be followed by a reception. 

 The lecture is free and open to the public.  Tickets for the performance of Pentecost are $16.50- $28.  Tickets and information are available at the Jorgensen box office. 

The lecture and performances are sponsored by the Foundations of Humanitarianism program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Human Rights Institute, and the Humanities Institute.

World Freedom Atlas

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The World Freedom Atlas is a new geo-visualization tool designed for human rights researchers, activists, and others to provide a visual map of democracy, human rights, and good governance around the world.  The maps covers the years 1990- 2006. 

It maps datasets by Cingranelli and Richards, Freedom House, Evans and Rauch, the International Country Risk Guide, and many others, and includes topics such as Civil Liberties, Women’s Rights, Amnesty International’s Political Terror Scale, Freedom of the Press, Torture, and many other variables on governance and human and civil rights. 

It’s a fantastic resource, so definitely check it out!  http://www.freedom.indiemaps.com/