December 10th is recognized as International Human Rights Day, commemorating the day in 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations. This summer I visited the Franklin Delano Roosevelt home and Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY for the first time. A highlight of the visit was an exhibit on Eleanor Roosevelt’s important role in developing the UDHR, and viewing her hand-annotated draft of the declaration.
As the modern human rights movement matures, endures and evolves, it’s important to preserve and record its history. The Center for Human Rights Documentation & Research at Columbia Libraries carries out that mission, as we collect and make available a variety of important sources related to human rights activism and advocacy. Some highlights of both our unique primary source collections, and other general research resources:
- Archives of human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International USA.
- Archives of individuals making notable contributions to human right advocacy, such as the Gay J. McDougall South Africa and Namibia Papers
- Human Rights Web Archive — a collection of archived websites of over 700 NGOs, blogs, and national human rights institutes
- New books on human rights available in the Libraries
- Databases: Human Rights Documents Online and Human Rights Studies
- Human Rights Research Guide
Contact chrdr@columbia.edu for more information, and follow us @HRDocumentation