Home

Resources

HumanRights X Feb 10

Introduction

Practical Information

Publications

Evaluation-Report

Financial Supporters

Resources

Media21 Fellowship Programme on Human Rights

Geneva (Switzerland), February 2010

RELEVANT RESOURCES

Quick links

Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Human Rights Issues:

Human Rights Instruments:

Human Rights Council:

Universal Periodical Review (UPR):

Treaty Bodies:

Special Procedures:

How to Find UN Human Rights Documents:

Country Specific Information:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) (French) (Spanish) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Human Rights Issues:

Adequate Housing, Business and Human Rights, Children, Civil and Political Rights, Climate change, Communications, Cultural rights, Democracy, Detention, Development (Good Governance and Debt), Disability and Human Rights, Disappearances, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Education, Environment, Food, Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Freedom of Religion and Belief, Gender, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights and International Solidarity, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Education and Training, Human Rights Indicators, Impunity, Independence of Judiciary, Indigenous Peoples, Internal Displacement, Mercenaries, Migration, Millenium Development Goals and Human Rights, Minorities, Plans of Action for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Poverty, Racism, Rule of Law, Situations, Slavery, Terrorism, Torture, Trafficking in Persons,Transnational Corporations, Water and sanitation, Women

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/ListofIssues.aspx

Human Rights Instruments:

There are nine core international human rights treaties. Each of these treaties has established a committee of experts to monitor implementation of the treaty provisions by its States parties. Some of the treaties are supplemented by optional protocols dealing with specific concerns.
		Date	Monitoring Body
ICERD	International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination	21 Dec 1965	CERD
ICCPR	International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights	16 Dec 1966	CCPR
ICESCR	International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights	16 Dec 1966	CESCR
CEDAW	Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women	18 Dec 1979	CEDAW
CAT	Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment	10 Dec 1984	CAT
CRC	Convention on the Rights of the Child	20 Nov 1989	CRC
ICRMW	International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families	18 Dec 1990	CMW
	International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance	20 Dec 2006
CRPD	Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities	13 Dec 2006	CRPD
ICESCR - OP	Optional Protocol of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights	10 Dec 2008	CESCR
ICCPR-OP1	Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights	16 Dec 1966	HRC
ICCPR-OP2	Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty	15 Dec 1989	HRC
OP-CEDAW	Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women	10 Dec 1999	CEDAW
OP-CRC-AC	Optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict	25 May 2000	CRC
OP-CRC-SC	Optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography	25 May 2000	CRC
OP-CAT	Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment	18 Dec 2002	CAT
OP-CRPD	Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities	12 Dec 2006	CRPD

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/

Human Rights Council:

The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the UN system made up of 47 States responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe. The Council was created by the UN General Assembly on 15 March 2006 with the main purpose of addressing situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them.

One year after holding its first meeting, on 18 June 2007, the Council adopted its "Institution-building package" [Word file] providing elements to guide it in its future work. Among the elements is the new Universal Periodic Review mechanism which will assess the human rights situations in all 192 UN Member States. Other features include a new Advisory Committee which serves as the Council's "think tank" providing it with expertise and advice on thematic human rights issues and the revised Complaints Procedure mechanism which allows individuals and organizations to bring complaints about human rights violations to the attention of the Council. The Human Rights Council also continues to work closely with the UN Special Procedures established by the former Commission on Human Rights and assumed by the Council.

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/

Universal Periodical Review (UPR):

"By your first anniversary in June, the wheels of the Council should be in full motion, including the Universal Periodic Review. This mechanism has great potential to promote and protect human rights in the darkest corners of the world." - Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations. As one of the main features of the Council, the UPR is designed to ensure equal treatment for every country when their human rights situations are assessed.

The UPR was created through the UN General Assembly on 15 March 2006 by resolution 60/251, which established the Human Rights Council itself. It is a cooperative process which, by 2011, will have reviewed the human rights records of every country. Currently, no other universal mechanism of this kind exists. The UPR is one of the key elements of the new Council which reminds States of their responsibility to fully respect and implement all human rights and fundamental freedoms. The ultimate aim of this new mechanism is to improve the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur.

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRMain.aspx

Treaty Bodies:

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) works to offer the best expertise and support to the different human rights monitoring mechanisms in the United Nations system : UN Charter-based bodies, including the Human Rights Council, and bodies created under the international human rights treaties and made up of independent experts mandated to monitor State parties' compliance with their treaty obligations. Most of these bodies receive secretariat support from the Human Rights Council and Treaties Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Charter based bodies

· Human Rights Council

· Universal Periodic Review

· Commission on Human Rights (replaced by the Human Rights Council)

· Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council

Treaty based bodies

There are eight human rights treaty bodies that monitor implementation of the core international human rights treaties :

· Human Rights Committee (CCPR)

· Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)

· Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

· Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

· Committee Against Torture (CAT) & Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) - Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture

· Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

· Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW)

· Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/Pages/HumanRightsBodies.aspx

Special Procedures:

"Special procedures" is the general name given to the mechanisms established by the Commission on Human Rights and assumed by the Human Rights Council to address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Currently, there are 31 thematic and 8 country mandates. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights provides these mechanisms with personnel, policy, research and logistical support for the discharge of their mandates.

Special procedures' mandates usually call on mandate holders to examine, monitor, advise and publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries or territories, known as country mandates, or on major phenomena of human rights violations worldwide, known as thematic mandates. Various activities are undertaken by special procedures, including responding to individual complaints, conducting studies, providing advice on technical cooperation at the country level, and engaging in general promotional activities.

Special procedures are either an individual (called "Special Rapporteur", "Special Representative of the Secretary-General" or "Independent Expert") or a working group usually composed of five members (one from each region) . The mandates of the special procedures are established and defined by the resolution creating them. Mandate-holders of the special procedures serve in their personal capacity, and do not receive salaries or any other financial compensation for their work. The independent status of the mandate-holders is crucial in order to be able to fulfill their functions in all impartiality. (See Fact sheet N.27 - under revision).

Most Special Procedures receive information on specific allegations of human rights violations and send urgent appeals or letters of allegation to governments asking for clarification. In 2008, a total of 911 communications were sent to Governments in 118 countries. 66% of these were joint communications of two or more mandate holders.

Mandate holders also carry out country visits to investigate the situation of human rights at the national level. They typically send a letter to the Government requesting to visit the country, and, if the Government agrees, an invitation to visit is extended. Some countries have issued "standing invitations", which means that they are, in principle, prepared to receive a visit from any special procedures mandate holder. As of September 2009, 65 countries had extended standing invitations to the special procedures. After their visits, special procedures' mandate-holders issue a mission report containing their findings and recommendations.

Starting June 2006, the Human Rights Council engaged in an institution building process, which included a review of the special procedures system. On 18 June 2007, at the conclusion of its fifth session, the Human Rights Council adopted a Resolution 5/1 entitled "Institution-building of the United Nations Human Rights Council," which included provisions on the selection of mandate holders and the review of all special procedures mandates. The review was conducted throughout 2007 and 2008. All thematic mandates were extended. New thematic mandates have also been established, namely on contemporary forms of slavery (2007), on access to safe drinking water and sanitation (2008) and on cultural rights (2009). Country mandates have been extended with the exception of Belarus, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia. At its 11th session, the Human Right Council created the mandate of independent expert on the situation of human rights in the Sudan which replaced a previous country mandate, for a period of one year. The independent expert was appointed at the 12th session of the Human Rights Council. A mandate-holder's tenure in a given function, whether it is a thematic or country mandate, will be no longer than six years (two terms of three years for thematic mandate-holders).

In June 2007, the Council also adopted Resolution 5/2, containing a Code of Conduct for special procedures mandate holders. At the Annual Meeting of special procedures in June 2008, special procedures mandate holders adopted their Manual, which provides guidelines on the working methods of special procedures. At the same meeting, they also adopted an Internal Advisory Procedure to review practices and working methods, by which the Code of Conduct and other relevant documents, including the Manual, are implemented to enhance the effectiveness and independence both of the special procedures system as a whole and of individual mandate-holders. At its 8th session, the Human Rights Council adopted a Presidential statement concerning the terms of special procedures mandate holders and their compliance with the Code of Conduct

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/special/index.htm