Knowvember · OHCHR · 10 November 2026

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From Paragraphs to Votes

Hands-on searching of UN human rights sources

Łukasz Szoszkiewicz
CyberLaw Lab, Faculty of Law and Administration,
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland)

FindCiteCheck

"necessary in a democratic society"

40. Article 21 provides that any restrictions must be “necessary in a democratic society”. Restrictions must therefore be necessary and proportionate in the context of a society based on democracy, the rule of law, political pluralism and human rights, as opposed to being merely reasonable or expedient.

CCPR/C/GC/37, para. 40

✓ verbatim · paragraph 40 exists · docs.un.org ↗

lszoszk.github.io/talks/knowvember-20261

Why these tools

From Ctrl+F to open tools

Ten years of research on UN human rights documents: the treaty bodies, the Universal Periodic Review, the Special Procedures and the travaux préparatoires.

2016 · One Word fileA member of a treaty body told me about his innovation: the General Comments merged into one Word file, so that Ctrl+F works across all of them.

2022 · A shared workflowFor a project with researchers working on different committees, my NLP scripts became one workflow in Orange Data Mining, an open-source tool for visual programming.

Since 2023 · AppsWith generative AI, a graphical interface on top of each script: a standalone tool that anyone can open in a browser.

Generative AI helps me build the tools. It does not answer your questions: every result is the text of a UN document.

Find It. Cite It. Check It2

Design principles

Three principles behind all four tools

1

No answer is generated

AI helped me write the software and prepare the data. Every result is verbatim text from the document, with its UN symbol and paragraph number.

2

The paragraph is the unit

The smallest citable unit: a paragraph, a speech, a vote, a recommendation. One click copies it with its full citation.

3

One click from the source

Each result links to the authoritative record: OHCHR, the Official Document System, the UN Digital Library.

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Four tools, four official sources

Each one ends where an official record begins

Tool	What it holds	Links to
UN Human Rights Database	323,000+ paragraphs: General Comments, jurisprudence of the treaty bodies, reports of the Special Procedures	docs.un.org
UN Travaux Préparatoires	29,694 speeches from the drafting of the UDHR, the ICCPR and the ICESCR (1946–1966), with votes and amendments	UN scans (undocs.org, UN Digital Library)
HRC Voting	7,420 records of the Commission on Human Rights, the Human Rights Council and the Third Committee of the General Assembly; 2,736 of them decided by a recorded vote	searchlibrary.ohchr.org
UHRI+	278,000+ recommendations and observations addressed to States by the UPR, the treaty bodies and the Special Procedures	uhri.ohchr.org

Find It. Cite It. Check It4

One question for the whole session

“Necessary in a democratic society”

Article 21 ICCPR allows restrictions on peaceful assembly only if they are necessary in a democratic society. What does that mean, where do these words come from, and what do States do with them today?

FindGeneral Comment No. 37
UN Human Rights Database

OriginThe drafting in 1952
Travaux Préparatoires

PoliticsVotes on peaceful protests
HRC Voting

PracticeRecommendations to States
UHRI+

Find It. Cite It. Check It5

1 · UN Human Rights Database · Find and cite

The paragraph, with its citation

Article 21 provides that any restrictions must be “necessary in a democratic society”. Restrictions must therefore be necessary and proportionate in the context of a society based on democracy, the rule of law, political pluralism and human rights, as opposed to being merely reasonable or expedient.CCPR/C/GC/37, para. 40

Live demo

Search "necessary in a democratic society"
Filter: Human Rights Committee (CCPR)
Open the paragraph: footnotes and neighbouring paragraphs
Copy it with the citation
↗ the document on docs.un.org
The same words in the Committee's Views

Open this search ↗GC 37 on docs.un.org ↗

lszoszk.github.io/generalcomments6

1 · UN Human Rights Database · Check

Spot the two errors

The Human Rights Committee requires restrictions to be “necessary and proportionate in the context of a society based on democracy and the rule of law” (CCPR/C/GC/37, para. 41).

Write in the chat what is wrong
Paste the sentence into Check: the symbol is resolved, the paragraph number checked, the quotation compared with the source
Try it on a paragraph from your own draft

Open Check ↗

lszoszk.github.io/generalcomments → Check7

1 · UN Human Rights Database · Ask

A question in your own words

Do organizers have to ask the police for permission before holding a protest?

Search (every word must appear): 0 paragraphs
Ask, first result:

Having to apply for permission from the authorities undercuts the idea that peaceful assembly is a basic right.CCPR/C/GC/37, para. 70

Live demo

Type the question in Ask
Read the paragraphs: verbatim, in the order of relevance
Open para. 70: notification is permissible, permission is not
↗ the document on docs.un.org

Open Ask ↗

A model only finds and orders the paragraphs, and every word on the screen is the Committee's.

lszoszk.github.io/generalcomments → Ask8

Search tip · measured, not assumed

Does search by meaning find the right source?

UN-HRDB · 1 of 389 cases

1

Source. The Views CCPR/C/131/D/2635/2015: “The onus is on States parties to justify the limitations on the right protected by article 21 of the Covenant and to demonstrate that it does not serve as a disproportionate obstacle to the exercise of the right.” They cite CCPR/C/GC/37, para. 36, the answer key.

2

Three questions. (a) that sentence, copied; (b) a question written by Claude Sonnet 5.5: “Who must justify limits on assembly and show they do not unduly obstruct people exercising it?” (c) keywords: state burden justify assembly restrictions

3

Ask puts para. 36 (a) first, (b) first, (c) fourth. Search finds nothing in all three.

Travaux · 1 of 579 claims

1

Source. Nowak's CCPR Commentary (2005), p. 490, note 20, on the French proposal to add “in a democratic society” to Article 21. It cites SR.169, SR.121 and E/CN.4/SR.325, p. 20, the answer key.

2

Three questions, written by Claude Sonnet 5.5 from the note: (a) a statement: “French proposal to add the phrase necessary in a democratic society to the limitation clause on assembly, narrowly adopted…” (b) a question: “Who proposed adding democratic society language to the restriction clause on assembly, and how close was the vote?” (c) keywords: necessary in a democratic society

3

Ask puts SR.325, p. 20 (a) first, (b) fourth, after the Commission's report of the same vote, (c) first. Search: (a) and (b) nothing useful, (c) first.

All cases · right source in the first 10	(a) copied or stated	(b) a question	(c) keywords
UN-HRDB 389 cases	Ask 53% · Search 2%	Ask 42% · Search 0%	Ask 34% · Search 9%
Travaux 579 claims from Nowak (2005) and Saul, Kinley and Mowbray (2014)	Ask 82% · Search 1%	Ask 73% · Search 1%	Ask 26% · Search 45%

Lower bounds: the answer keys are frozen in time, and a newer document that answers better counts as a miss. A question in your own words: use Ask. A few words: use Search.

UN-HRDB: 7–8 November 2026 · Travaux: 4 and 8 November 20269

18:00–21:00. (a) is the easiest case: a copied sentence repeats the wording of the source, so it overstates what a user gets; (b) is the realistic one: a question in plain language, written by Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Anthropic) from each passage or claim without copying four words in a row; (c) is what people type into a search box. Any of the words (OR), for comparison: UN-HRDB 38% / 28% / 28%, Travaux 49% / 31% / 23%. Ask against OR on (b): UN-HRDB +13.9 points (95% CI 9.5 to 18.5), Travaux +41 points. In 39 of the 389 UN-HRDB cases the cited General Comment was later replaced; Ask returns the newer one and the case counts as a miss (without them: (a) 59%, (b) 47%, (c) 37%). The drafting records are a closed corpus (1946–1966), so Travaux gives the cleaner measure. Search does not switch to OR by itself: it requires every word, so a sentence or a question finds nothing. A score near 100% would be suspicious (quotations of ten words or more were removed from the UN-HRDB set for this reason). Nowak's text is not shown: the commentaries are copyrighted and stay private in the project.

2 · UN Travaux Préparatoires · Origin

6 June 1952: nine votes to eight

The French amendment (E/CN.4/L.201) to insert the words “in a democratic society” after “necessary” was adopted by 9 votes to 8, with 1 abstention.E/CN.4/SR.325, p. 20

Roosevelt (United States of America) opposed the words because of their ambiguity (p. 15)
Cassin (France): a reference to public order and to democratic society was essential to safeguard the freedoms of assembly and association (pp. 11–12)

Live demo

Article 21 ICCPR: drafts, meetings, votes, amendments
Search "democratic society"
Record: E/CN.4/SR.325
Open a speech: speaker, delegation, page
↗ the UN scan of that page

Article 21 ICCPR ↗This search ↗

Summary records paraphrase in the third person: check the scan before you quote.

lszoszk.github.io/travaux-preparatoires9

3 · HRC Voting · Politics

Peaceful protests at the Human Rights Council

Year	Resolution	Yes – no – abstain
2014	A/HRC/RES/25/38	31 – 9 – 7
2016	A/HRC/RES/31/37	31 – 5 – 10
2018–2024	four resolutions	without a vote

Between 2016 and 2024, 19 amendments to these resolutions were put to a vote. All were rejected.

Live demo

Topics: Right to Assembly - Public Demonstrations
Resolutions only shows the 2 recorded votes; With amendments adds the 19 amendments
How did your State vote, and on which amendments?
↗ the record in the OHCHR Library

Open HRC Voting ↗25/38 in the OHCHR Library ↗

lszoszk.github.io/hrc-voting10

4 · UHRI+ · Practice

What States are told about peaceful assembly

3,700+ recommendations and observations carry the theme “right to peaceful assembly” in UHRI+.

UHRI+ is the same data, cleaned, with visualizations and a statistics overlay. Every record opens in UHRI.

Live demo

Theme: Right to peaceful assembly
Body: UPR, CCPR, Special Procedures
Country and years
↗ the record on uhri.ohchr.org

Open UHRI+, this theme ↗

lszoszk.github.io/UnitedNations_recommendations11

The whole route

From paragraph to vote, each step one click from the record

Step	What we found	Official record
Find	CCPR/C/GC/37, para. 40	docs.un.org
Origin	E/CN.4/SR.325, p. 20: adopted 9 – 8 – 1	UN scan
Politics	A/HRC/RES/25/38: 31 – 9 – 7	searchlibrary.ohchr.org
Practice	3,700+ recommendations on peaceful assembly	uhri.ohchr.org

Find It. Cite It. Check It12

Beyond the browser · MCP

Your AI assistant, connected to the same data

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets an AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT and others) query a database while it answers. The tool returns the verbatim paragraph with its UN symbol, and the assistant writes around it.

Connector	Address
UN-HRDBwith the UHRI recommendations	https://150.254.115.204/unhrdb-mcp-rpc/mcp
Travaux	https://150.254.115.204/travaux-api/mcp
HRC Voting	on your own computer: github.com/lszoszk/mcp-hrc-voting

The conversation goes to the company that runs the assistant: no confidential text there. The tools themselves only see the search terms the assistant sends.

Live demo in Claude

Customize → Connectors → Add custom connector, paste the address
Ask: “What does the Human Rights Committee say about notifying the authorities before a peaceful assembly? Quote the paragraphs with their symbols.”
Watch the tool calls: what the assistant searched for
Open a cited paragraph ↗: one click from the source
Paste the answer into Check: every quotation compared with the text

modelcontextprotocol.io14

Maintenance

How current the data are, and where your searches go

Tool	Newest	Updated	Your search runs
UN Human Rights Database	5 Nov 2026jurisprudence: 13 May 2026	daily	browser · server
UN Travaux Préparatoires	closed, 1946–1966	corrections only	server
HRC Voting	vote of 24 Sep 2026	after each session	browser
UHRI+	9 Jul 2026 · 278,511 records	daily	server

Server: a virtual machine of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, web log kept 14 days. Ask also sends the question to Voyage AI (owned by MongoDB).

Find It. Cite It. Check It14

41:00–42:00. Updates: UN-HRDB, a daily check of UN Documents and a weekly check of OHCHR JURIS, every new document reviewed before it is added; Travaux, a closed corpus, OCR and article tags corrected in rounds (last: 4 November 2026); HRC Voting, newest vote 24 September 2026 (63rd session); UHRI+, a daily check of the OHCHR export and a full reconciliation every month. Browser · server for UN-HRDB: the General Comments are searched in the browser, the rest on the server. The pages themselves come from GitHub Pages. HRC Voting holds the 63rd session of the Council up to 24 September 2026. Every Monday the university server checks UN Documents for Council resolutions newer than the published data (and whether new summary records of the Third Committee are out); it only reports, and the votes are added by hand once the OHCHR Library catalogues the session, because the catalogue cannot be read automatically (it sits behind a bot check). Possible question to the Library team: an export or an API for the voting records. The same weekly check looks for new cases on OHCHR JURIS for UN-HRDB. UHRI+ found nothing new on 8 November: the export of the Universal Human Rights Index has nothing published after 9 July. The monthly reconciliation catches records added later to older documents (e.g., reports of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture). A good moment to offer to report errors and gaps back. Privacy: in the browser means the search never leaves the computer (the General Comments in UN-HRDB, all of HRC Voting); the rest goes to the university server, which keeps only daily totals from its log after 14 days (no addresses, no searches). Each tool shows its date: the lag follows the sources (the OHCHR Library, the Universal Human Rights Index, UN Documents).

Before you rely on them

What to keep in mind

These tools are unofficial and OHCHR has not endorsed them. In case of doubt, the official record prevails.
Travaux: the text is OCR (about 0.5% of characters wrong) and ten documents are machine translations from French, marked as such.
Search by meaning (Ask) in UN-HRDB covers the General Comments only, and the question is sent to Voyage AI (owned by MongoDB).
If you spot an error, tell me. Errors I find in the sources, I report back.

Find It. Cite It. Check It13

Slides, tools, questions

Questions

lszoszk.github.io/talks/knowvember-2026

UN Human Rights Database lszoszk.github.io/generalcomments
UN Travaux Préparatoires lszoszk.github.io/travaux-preparatoires
HRC Voting lszoszk.github.io/hrc-voting
UHRI+ lszoszk.github.io/UnitedNations_recommendations

The data are open on Hugging Face and Zenodo, and each tool can be connected to an AI assistant (MCP).

Łukasz Szoszkiewicz · l.szoszkiewicz@amu.edu.pl

Knowvember · OHCHR · 10 November 202614

Find It. Cite It.Check It

From Paragraphs to Votes

From Ctrl+F to open tools

Three principles behind all four tools

No answer is generated

The paragraph is the unit

One click from the source

Each one ends where an official record begins

“Necessary in a democratic society”

The paragraph, with its citation

Spot the two errors

A question in your own words

Does search by meaning find the right source?

6 June 1952: nine votes to eight

Peaceful protests at the Human Rights Council

What States are told about peaceful assembly

From paragraph to vote, each step one click from the record

Your AI assistant, connected to the same data

How current the data are, and where your searches go

What to keep in mind

Questions

Find It. Cite It.
Check It