Treaties and other instruments
Most human rights treaties can be found easily with a web search.
Two of the largest paper collections of human rights documents in the Library are:
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute Compilation of Human Rights Instruments (Göran Melander & Gudmundur Alfredsson eds., 1997). Human Rights K 3238 .R36 1997
International Human Rights Instruments: A Compilation of Treaties, Agreements, and Declarations of Especial Interest to the United States. (Richard B. Lillich ed., 1983- ) K 3238 .A1 I57 1983.
Many useful sources for documents are on the internet:
The EISIL Project of the American Society of International Law has identified key sources in international human rights law.
Human Rights Library (U of M). This is a major collection of international human rights documents, organized in several ways. Many documents include citations.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Under Research/Evaluation, contains useful documents on countries' treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, and policy documents relating to refugee and asylum issues).
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (excellent starting point for many topics)
Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), Human Rights Treaties
Country reports
Country reports are documents issued by intergovernmental or non-governmental organizations, or by governments, that assess a country's human rights performance. Major series of country reports include those issued by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United States Department of State. All three of these organizations publish their reports on their websites. These reports are on Reserve in the Law Library. The Department of State Reports are at Reserve Y4.F76/ 1-15:. The Amnesty International reports are at Reserve K3239.4 .A46x, and the Human Rights Watch reports are at Reserve JC 571 .H784
Cases
Finding human rights cases can be difficult; some cases are not reported, and case reporters are often published irregularly. Because it is hard to search cases with keywords, you may want to use a secondary source, particularly a human rights treaty commentary, to find relevant cases:
The UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: A Commentary (Marsha A. Freeman et al. eds. 2012)K3243.A35 U86x 2012.
Sarah Joseph et al., The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Cases, Materials, and Commentary (2d ed. 2004) K3240 .J67 2004.
Manfred Nowak, U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: CCPR Commentary (2005) K3238.31966.A3 N6913 2005
Manfred Nowak & Elizabeth McArthur, The United Nations Convention against Torture: A Commentary (2008) K5304.A41984 N69 2008
M. Magdalena Sepúlveda, The Nature of the Obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2003) K3238.31966 .S47x 2003.
Or try "Finding jurisprudence by subject" using Bayefsky.com.
Here are some paper sources for human rights cases:
European Court of Human Rights: Publications de la Cour européenne des droits de l'homme. Série A, Arrêts et décisions =Publications of the European Court of Human Rights. Human Rights Library KJC5132.A52 E88Leading Cases of the European Court of Human Rights (R.A. Lawson & H.G. Schermers eds., 1997). Law Library KJC5138.A6 1997x.
International Human Rights Reports (University of Nottingham, 1994- ) (contains cases from the UN, Council of Europe, and the Inter-American Court). Human Rights Library K9 .N7344x
Butterworths Human Rights Cases (1997- ) (contains cases from around the world). Law Library K3240.3 .B88x.
Inter-American Court of Human Rights: Serie C--Resoluciones y sentencias (1987, 1989, 1990). Human Rights Library KDZ574.A52 I535x
Decisions and Reports (Council of Europe and European Commission for Human Rights, 1960-1974). Human Rights Library KJC5135.A5 C65x (no.1 (1960)-no.46 (1974).
Decisions and Reports (European Commission of Human Rights, 1975-1999). Ceased with 94-B, published in 1999. Human Rights Library KJC5135.A5 D435x .
Selected Decisions under the Optional Protocol (United Nations, Human Rights Committee, 1985-1990). Law Library United Nations Documents UN-DOCSCCPR/C/OP/1-2.
You can often find cases on the web. Here are some useful sites:
Interights International Human Rights Law (The International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights)
Human Rights Library (U of M)
Inter-American Court of Human Rights
HUDOC, European Union human rights cases
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decisions
United Nations charter-based and treaty-based organizations make their recent decisions available when these decisions are not confidential. Search at UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Cases from national courts involving the definition of a refugee, from the University of Michigan's Refugee Caselaw site
Currently, the best site for searching human rights jurisprudence is from WorldLII. You can use drop-down menus to select which human rights tribunals or courts to search.
ICC Legal Tools Database: browse or search cases, legislation, documents, etc. from international or national criminal court tribunals.