The area of human rights has had significant attention both nationally and internationally in the press and in the political arena. While there is a renewed commitment to human rights advocacy, there is also an upward trend in popular culture of depictions of torture. This article provides critical annotations of English-language reference sources, published since 1990, and available both in print and online, in an effort to aid librarians collecting and weeding materials for human rights research.

This article was included in the Journal of Academic Librarianship's Guide to the Professional Literature in 2010. The Guide "is a highly selective review of the current literature."