Collection of links to databases

Union catalogs and subject portals

International human rights protection

United Nations

  • OHCHR: United Nations Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner Website and database of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese. The website of the Office of the High Commissioner offers systematic access to all important institutions, agreements and documents relating to international human rights protection.
  • OHCHR: United Nations Human Rights Council Website of the United Nations Human Rights Council in English and partly in other official UN languages. The Human Rights Council provides the documents of the current and previous sessions. These include the resolutions, the reports of the thematic and country-specific rapporteurs and working groups as well as the reports on individual countries as part of the Universal Periodic Review. Many meetings are broadcast on the internet (webcast) and can also be viewed retrospectively in the webcast archive.
  • OHCHR: Universal Human Rights Index The "Universal Human Rights Index" database provided by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights enables precise searches in the country-specific documents of the nine UN human rights treaty bodies from 2000 onwards, the UN special procedures from 2006 onwards and the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council.
  • OHCHR: Jurisprudence database The database of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights contains the decisions of the UN specialized committees (treaty bodies) in individual complaints procedures. It is currently possible to submit individual complaints to eight specialized committees: the Human Rights Committee on the Civil Covenant (CCPR), Committee on the Convention against Torture (CAT), Committee on the Convention against Racism (CERD), Committee on the Convention on the Rights of Women (CEDAW), Committee on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Committee on the Convention against Enforced Disappearances (CED), Committee on the Social Covenant (CESCR). The database offers a selection of search fields and filters that enable a targeted search. For example, "Germany" can be selected in the "State" filter in the list of countries displayed and a search carried out. The search result lists all decisions in individual complaints proceedings against Germany.
  • OHCHR: Status of Ratification The ratification status of human rights treaties or states is displayed on an interactive world map.
  • UN: Official Document System of the United Nations Electronic document archive of the United Nations in English and French as well as partly in Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese. The archive contains all official United Nations documents published since 1993 as well as a selection of older documents. The link leads to a German-language introduction to the contents and search functions of the database.
  • United Nations Treaty Collection: Chapter IV: Human Rights Collection of United Nations treaties with current ratification status. Chapter IV (chapter four) lists the human rights treaties.
  • What Convention: International Legal Search Engine A database specializing in human rights and international humanitarian law from the independent Mandat International Foundation on international conventions and their ratification status. A country-specific search leads to the conventions applicable to the country in question. A thematic search lists the relevant articles from the conventions. A combination of thematic and country-specific searches is also possible.

Council of Europe

  • Council of Europe Treaty Office The text of all Council of Europe treaties, their explanatory reports, the status of signatures and ratifications, the declarations and reservations made by States, as well as the notifications issued by the Treaty Office since 2000, are available on their website.
  • European Court of Human Rights: HUDOC Database of the European Court of Human Rights in English and French. Judgments, decisions, pronouncements and reports of the European Court of Human Rights (from 1998) and the European Commission of Human Rights (until 1998). Selected judgments concerning Germany are also available in German translation. Further judgments and proceedings concerning Germany can be found on the website of the Federal Ministry of Justice.

European Union

  • EUR-Lex EUR-Lex provides direct and free access to the legislation of the European Union. The system can be used to consult the Official Journal of the European Union and, in particular, the Treaties, legislative acts, case law and preparatory acts.
  • Court of Justice of the European Union: Curia The "Curia" case law database contains the full text of judgments, opinions, opinions and orders of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the Community Courts with dates of delivery from June 17, 1997, published in the "Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance" or in the "Reports of Cases before the Civil Service".

Germany

  • The Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court Since January 1, 1998, the decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court have been published in unabridged form. The text is official and corresponds to that which the court sends out on request.
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