The Human Rights Internet newsletter began in 1976 in the United States in response to a sense that the explosion of interest in human rights required centralization and coordination of information about who was doing what: practitioners, conferences, courses, publications, and nongovernmental organizations. Its first issue was mailed to 100 people; within a few years it was reaching 800. Its development provides a fascinating look at how human rights was conceived of and studied in the “breakthrough” years. The newsletter is held at a variety of libraries. Here are some tasters:
Excerpts from the index to the 1976-1978 issues: the list of international conferences provides an overview of the topics human rights organizations and individuals were interested in.
The first issue of the newsletter [working on getting it on this site].
Early syllabi for courses on human rights taught in the United States: one from 1976 by Vernon van Dyke at Iowa (Human Rights Internet vol. 1, no. 2, Sept. 1976), and a May 1977 proposed syllabus from Daniel Hirsch at UCLA (from the Human Rights Internet vol. 2, no. 5, May 1977).