Human Rights

Bayefsky.com began in the late 1990's as part of a review of the UN human rights treaty system conducted in collaboration with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Originally an internal database to serve the review project, it was made public as a service to researchers, advocates and members of the public who found the UN website difficult to navigate. The site provides links to reports, concluding observations, ratifications, reservations and declarations, jurisprudence and other types of documents on the major U.N. human rights treaties. It is searchable by type of document, country or subject matter.

EUR-Lex is an online gateway to EU Law, providing the official and most comprehensive access to EU legal documents. It is available in all of the EU’s 24 official languages and is updated daily.

This HeinOnline Library includes all U.S. treaties, whether currently in-force, expired, or not-yet officially published. This is the world's largest and most complete online collection of U.S. treaties and agreements and includes such prominent collections as the United States Treaties and Other International Agreements set (commonly referred to as the "Blue set"), as well as famous sets from Bevans, Miller, Malloy and others.

ODS is a source for PDF copies of U.N. documents of all sorts, including treaty body materials. A username and password are not needed to access most official documents. However, conference room papers and working papers not meant for general distribution, require a privileged access-level user account.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the depositary of more than 560 multilateral treaties which cover a broad range of subject matters such as human rights, disarmament and protection of the environment. United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS) and the Status of Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General are available here in electronic format. Images from the treaty series, ratification information reservations and declarations are available. Searching is complicated and we recommend the advanced search interface. [Note: the law library has the UNTS in print, which may be easier to use.]

Provides a list of treaties with links to ratification tables.

Provides status information, signatures and ratifications, and declarations / reservations.

This source contains the current status of over 500 multilateral treaties including declarations and reservations. Updated online more frequently than in print.

Good source to determine if a treaty is in force for the United States. This resource will also provide a US citation for a treaty, if available.

Website provides historical information about treaties, access to the status of current treaties, as well as the status of historic treaties (1959-2009).