Independent organisation campaigning for internationally recognised human rights.

Provides access to statistical data in 15 categories for 202 countries, 1981-2011. Data is mainly derived from US State Dept. country reports (see below).

Global alliance of civil society organisations and activists dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world. HQ in South Africa & members in over 175 countries. Key publication since 2017 has been Civicus Monitor, which tracks the state of civic freedoms in countries around the world

Human Rights and Democracy Report (2003-)

Presents an overview of the state of democracy around the globe today. See especially its Freedom in the World comparative & historical data. Free reports online assess civil liberties and political rights, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion, both for specific countries and around the world generally. Includes its flagship Freedom in the World reports 1998- (or as dataset from 1973-) and Freedom of the Press reports 2002- (or as dataset from 1980-) and Freedom on the Net (2012 -).

ESRC funded project based at the University of Essex Human Rights Centre

Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations and the website is an excellent resource for finding reports on individual countries.

Full text of international conventions and covenants is available here, also the Universal Human Rights Index for country specific information.
See also various databases.

Cross-national data on political repression & violence since 1976, compiled annually from Amnesty International & US State Dept. data.

Useful website aims at demonstrating the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on human rights

Influential annual reports for countries around the world (archive back to 1999)

Independent organisation seeking to advance the rule of law around the world. Compiles the Rule of Law Index (2012-) which attempts annual
measurement of this for 115 countries around the world using 44 different indicators.

See the Human Rights subject guide
See the Sociology subject guide for Indigenous Peoples
See the Economics subject guide for data on Child Labour