Broad Subject Range
The organizations whose material is represented are concerned with a broad range of human rights issues: with the rights of indigenous peoples, refugees, women, labor, 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, with the rule of law and due process; with political participation and self-determination; and with the fulfillment of basic human needs. The focus of some NGO's is universal in scope; others are concerned with the attainment of human rights in specific areas of the world. The collection represents the concerns of all groups in all regions of the world: Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, Latin America, North America, and Europe. The collection is updated regularly. Typically, an update includes both supplemented and new titles.
Grey Literature
The material produced by NGO's concerned with human rights and social justice - both published and unpublished documents - is vital to the analysis of the status of human rights and to the promotion and protection of those rights. Yet much of this source material is difficult to obtain. In a certain sense, it is "grey" literature: copies of publications are produced in limited numbers and very narrowly disseminated; material is often produced on poor quality paper, in odd shapes and sizes, at irregular intervals; organizations which emerge to confront a particular crisis often dissolve after the crisis ends, and the documentation of those organizations disappears.
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