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INTERIGHTS' BULLETIN

INTERIGHTS' quarterly Bulletin aims to keep human rights practitioners abreast of developments in human rights law. Each issue carries articles and additional information on selected topics, short items on new developments in international human rights law and practice, reviews of recent publications, notes on interesting developments in the domestic application of international human rights standards from around the world and news about INTERIGHTS' activities. Edited by Leanne MacMillan, each issue is co-edited by a member of staff or by a guest editor. An extensive central section edited by Jeremy McBride carries summaries of decisions of international and regional tribunals applying human rights standards, with commentaries relating these to earlier decisions. Issues addressed include restitution and compensation for property in post-communist Europe, indigenous peoples� property rights, customary law and women�s inheritance rights, and the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights in practice.

Click here for information on editions of the Bulletin in French and Russian.

COMMONWEALTH HUMAN RIGHTS CASE LAW PROJECT

The Commonwealth Human Rights Law Database and tri-annual Digest were both established in response to requests from judges and lawyers for assistance in accessing decisions of courts in other countries to guide their own arguments and decision-making in the developing field of human rights law. The combined effect of these two initiatives is to ensure access to the most important developments in comparative jurisprudence, regardless of local technological capacities. The overall aim is to strengthen legal protection and remedies for victims of human rights violations world-wide by providing adequate resources to enable both judges and lawyers to invoke, interpret and apply the principles set out in international and domestic human rights law through local courts.

The cases summarised, often unpublished or unpublicised, are those which refer to international human rights instruments, to provisions of Bills of Rights within national constitutions, or otherwise have a significant human rights dimension. The Programme is supported by Interights' extensive network of Commonwealth contacts who provide information and judgments that are key to the success of this Programme.

Commonwealth Human Rights Case Law Database

Containing summaries of recent human rights decisions from national courts in Commonwealth jurisdictions, the Database was launched during Summer 2000, and is now available free of charge on Interights' website at http://www.interights.org. Through a browse facility and search engine, the regularly updated Database, developed by consultants Ukko Ltd, is searchable under a variety and combination of fields, including by country, date and keyword. The Database enables users to search for relevant summaries of human rights cases which are then presented in a clear format. It provides a potentially unlimited audience instantaneous access to comparative human rights case law, which is of vital importance under the common law system and of value also in civil law jurisdictions.

The Database contains over 750 summarised cases. Links have been added to the full text of judgments where available on other websites.


The Commonwealth Human Rights Law Digest

The Digest, launched in September 1996, contains summaries of selected human rights decisions from Commonwealth courts. The third issue of Volume 2 was published in September 2000, and the index to Volume 2 was prepared, for distribution with the first issue of Volume 3 of the Digest. Due to generous subsidy, and relatively low subscription levels, the publication provides an affordable means of accessing Commonwealth human rights jurisprudence.