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location: resources / links

Human Rights Sites
United Nations This is the U.N’s. official website. To start looking for particular documents dealing with human rights and the mandates of the various U.N. bodies that deal with Human Rights go to www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/spechr.htm
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights This is the site of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. On this page you can find the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Standard Minimal Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Human Rights Watch This is the website of Human Rights Watch and focuses on the state of prisons worldwide. It is an excellent site for reviewing international developments. Though historically the organization has focused on conditions outside of North America, in recent years it has issued a number of reports dealing with human rights abuses in U.S. prisons. So far, conditions in Canadian prisons have not been subject to scrutiny by Human Rights Watch. The site is, nevertheless, a useful resource for information on prison conditions in other countries.
Amnesty International This is the site of Amnesty International. Amnesty has issued many reports dealing with prison conditions around the world, although they have not conducted any investigations in Canadian prisons. Recent reports which deal with conditions in the United Kingdoms Special Security units are, however, of relevance to conditions in Canada’s SHU and segregation units (see United Kingdom, Special Security Units; Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment 01/03/1997). This report sets out the various UN standards that are relevant to the conditions in these units. Amnesty’s 2001 Annual Report in its section on the Americas contains a chapter on conditions in U.S. prisons (www.aiusa.org/annualreport/).
B.C. Civil Liberties Association This is the site of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the oldest and most active civil liberties organization in Canada. In the area of prisoners rights, the Associated funded an intervention in support of prisoner’s voting rights in the case of Sauve v. The Chief Electoral Officer of Canada:

http://www.bccla.org/factums.html

The site also contains links to other civil liberties organizations, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Liberty (National Council for Civil Liberities, U.K.).
American Civil Liberties Union This is the prisoners rights section of the American Civil Liberties Union website. One of the links on this page is to the ACLU National Prison Project. This was founded in 1972 and “seeks to create constitutional conditions of confinement and strengthen prisoners rights through class action litigation and public education”. For many years its Executive Director was Al Bronstein, one of the most influential legal advocates for prisoners rights in the U.S. The project publishes a quarterly journal which is available by subscription. The website also contains the text of the ACLU Prisoner’s Rights Position Paper.
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