Monday, February 07, 2005

A new International Disabilities / Human Rights Law Web Resource was launched this January by the Syracuse University College of Law and the H. Douglas Barclay Law Library. The resource was developed at the request of College of Law Professor Arlene Kanter by Wendy Scott, Associate Director for Faculty and Outreach Services in the Law Library, with the assistance of Research Assistant, Nevhiz Calik. The database is one of the first comprehensive bibliographic resources devoted to international disability law. It was created to support not only the College of Law joint law and education degree program and the Syracuse University Disabilities Studies Program, but to enhance research in disabilities studies by scholars, researchers, educators, students, government agencies and organizations worldwide.

The primary goals of the site are to; 1) consolidate relevant international, regional and foreign legal sources and documents from credible web resources; 2) provide access to primary
source material according to issuing body; 3) reflect the historical development of instruments that have undergone revisions; 4) provide access to relevant foreign legislation and constitutional provisions by country, and; 5) enhance the researcher's understanding of the topic and its sources through annotations and explanatory text.

The site is currently organized under three broad divisions; international, regional and foreign disability law. The main topics are subdivided into smaller categories, under which annotations and links to individual documents may be found. The contents may be browsed or searched using keywords. The next phase in the site's development will be full-text access to primary and secondary source material not available on the Internet. (http://www.law.syr.edu/lawlibrary/electronic/humanrights.asp)

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