Want to Write on a Human Rights Issue? Choose from Over Fifty

International human rights law is governed by nine core multilateral treaties and their associated administrative and monitoring bodies. These nine treaties cover: civil and political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights, race discrimination, discrimination against women, torture, the rights of the child, migrant workers, persons with disabilities, and enforced disappearances.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is the principal United Nations office mandated to promote and protect human rights. The Office of High Commissioner has identified over fifty human rights issues, encompassing such broad topics as business and human rights, climate change, detention, good governance and debt, education, environment, HIV/AIDS, poverty, rule of law, and transnational corporations.

Human rights issues intersect with almost every legal topic. So if you are interested, you can probably work a human rights angle into almost any seminar paper or note. If you’re just getting started, you might want to consider a research guide, like this one from Georgetown Law.