Earlier this year, faculty and librarians at the University of Virginia School of Law launched a free database UN Human Rights Treaties – Travaux Préparatoires. This new database contains a substantial collection of fully searchable digital copies of travaux préparatoires and supplementary documents for several major United Nations human rights conventions. Documents are organized by convention and indexed by subject.
What are travaux préparatoires? Travaux préparatoires or ‘preparatory works’ are the documents created during the drafting and negotiation of an international treaty. While what constitutes the travaux préparatoires for any specific treaty can be case specific, it is generally understood to include the “official records of the negotiations between the parties, draft text proposed during the negotiation; statements made by States representatives during the debates; diplomatic exchanges; and interpretations formulated by the president of a drafting committee and not contested.”¹
Why might you research travaux préparatoires? This new database of travaux préparatoires will benefit researchers interested in the origins of a convention and the roles and positions of the various states that were involved in the negotiation of the convention. The database will also benefit those who are tasked with interpreting the text of a convention. Under the Vienna Convention travaux préparatoires can be used as an aid to interpretation to help a court, arbitral body, or a researcher confirm the ‘ordinary meaning’ of the text or to clarify the wording of a treaty where the meaning is ambiguous, obscure, or where the ‘ordinary meaning’ leads to an absurd or unreasonable result.² See for example Febles v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2014 SCC 68, [2014] 3 SCR 431 where the Court used the travaux préparatoires to confirm the ordinary meaning of a provision of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
What treaties are included in the new database? The database contains travaux préparatoires for the nine human rights conventions listed below. While the database is not complete, it is the most comprehensive online collections of travaux préparatoires for these human rights conventions and will greatly assist those researching the origins and meaning of these international human rights conventions.
- International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965)
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)
- International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979)
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984)
- Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
- International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1999)
- Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)
- International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (2006)
¹Olivier Corten & Pierre Klein eds, The Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties: A Commentary (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) vol 1 at 852. Call Number: KZ1301 V54 2011.
² Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 23 May 1969, 1155 UNTS 332 art 32 (entered into force 27 January, 1980).
Further resources:
UVic Law Library’s Research Guide on International Human Rights and Dispute Resolution.
UN Office of Legal Affairs, Audiovisual Library of International Law : Historic Archives.
Anthony Aust, Modern Treaty Law and Practice, 2nd ed (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007). Call Number: KZ1301 A97 2007
Olivier Corten & Pierre Klein eds, The Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties: A Commentary (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). Call Number: KZ1301 V54 2011
Richard Gardiner, Treaty Interpretation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). Call Number: KZ1304 G37 2008
Jonathan Pratter, “À la Recherche des Travaux Préparatoires: An Approach to Researching the Drafting History of International Agreements” (May 2015), GlobaLex.