Human Rights Day – an open access collection

Human Rights Day is observed annually around the world on 10 December, commemorating the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations.

This year, the theme is ‘Our Rights, Our Future, Right Now’ which focuses on the power of human rights as a preventative, protective and transformative force for good.

In recognition of how human rights impact on all aspects of society, we’ve curated a collection of eBooks from the 20,000+ free-to-access titles in the Kortext Open Resources Collection with chosen texts encompassing human rights and law, politics, business, technology, and more.

To give you a taster of what to expect, we’ve selected five open access eBooks from our curated human rights collection to explore in more detail here.

1. Human Rights Politics: An Introduction, by Michael Krennerich

This book offers a student-friendly introduction to human rights politics, covering civil society, state obligations and international protections. Written by a renowned expert, it explores issues, actors and institutions in human rights, while also providing guidance on understanding the complexities of human rights policy through political science and related disciplines.

2. Responsive Human Rights: Vulnerability, Ill-treatment and the ECtHR, by Corina Heri

Heri examines how the European Court of Human Rights addresses the treatment of vulnerability, a topic often overlooked in European human rights law. This text combines theoretical insights with practical analysis, focusing on ECHR article 3 and the concept of human dignity. Essential for scholars, it offers a framework for understanding vulnerability.

3. Human Rights in the Age of Platforms, edited by Rikke Frank Jørgensen

This volume explores human rights in today’s platform society, where tech giants like Apple and Google shape information access, privacy and expression. Contributors analyse data extraction, content moderation, corporate responsibilities and compliance with human rights law, highlighting the tension between private platforms and the state’s regulatory influence.

4. Achieving Access to Justice in a Business and Human Rights Context: An Assessment of Litigation and Regulatory Responses in European Civil-Law Countries, by Virginie Rouas

Rouas examines the role of litigation in achieving corporate accountability for human rights and environmental harm caused by multinational enterprises in European civil law countries. This book discusses activists’ legal strategies, evaluates litigation’s effectiveness in securing justice and assesses developments, such negotiations for a business and human rights treaty.

5. Human Rights at the Intersections: Transformation through Local, Global, and Cosmopolitan Challenges, edited by Anthony Tirado Chase et al.

This collection explores how human rights activists navigate increasing state resistance by engaging non-state actors, reshaping traditional roles between local and global norms. Contributors critically engage with interdisciplinary perspectives on gender, sexuality, and localism, arguing that human rights must adapt to diverse contexts to remain relevant.

To access our human rights collection, please contact your Kortext Account Manager for more information.

You don’t have to be an existing Kortext customer to benefit from our Open Resources Collection. To find out more, talk to us today.