Brill launches "Human Rights Documents Online".

Brill Academic Publishers (Boston/Leiden, the Neth.) has launched "Human Rights Documents Online" (HRDO), a searchable database that includes a wide range of human rights documents published since 1980. Subscription pricing is available based on number of users.

Brill said that HRDO will ultimately contain all human rights documents collected by the Human Rights Internet (HRI; Ottawa) since 1980, including all microfiche supplied by Brill division IDC Publishing. The documents emanate from 417 nongovernmental human rights organizations (NGOs) worldwide, some of which have universal scope, with others focusing on human rights issues in a specific area of the world. The collection currently covers the years 1980-2004 and spans a broad range of human rights issues. Documents from 2005-2006 will be added in 2008 and 2009.

The organizations whose material is presented deal with a broad range of human rights issues, including: the rights of indigenous peoples, refugees, women, labor and children; with freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, and freedom of conscience; with the abolition of torture, political killings, disappearances, slavery and genocide; with the fate of political prisoners, the rule of law and due process; political participation and self-determination; and, the fulfillment of basic human needs, The collection represents the concerns of all groups in all regions of the world, including Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, North America, and the Pacific Rim. Updates to the collection occur regularly.

For the last 25 years, HRI has served as an unofficial depository for the documentation produced by NGO human rights organizations throughout the world. The group has Consultative Status with the UN and Observer Status with the African Commission of Human and People's Rights.