The UN system of human rights protection

The United Nations (UN) system has two main types of bodies to promote and protect human rights: Charter Bodies and Treaty Bodies.

Charter Bodies are established under the UN Charter in order to fulfil the UNs general purpose of promoting human rights. They have broad mandates that cover promoting human rights in all UN member states.

The Human Rights Council

The principal UN Charter Body responsible for human rights is the Human Rights Council (HRC).

Office Of The United Nations High Commissioner For Human Rights

Its role is to prevent human rights violations and secure respect for human rights by promoting international cooperation and coordinating the United Nations’ human rights activities.

Treaty Bodies

-        have responsibility for monitoring and promoting compliance with a particular human rights treaty. As such they are only concerned with countries that are a party to that treaty.

-         consider reports from State Parties on their compliance with the treaty and some treaty bodies can receive individual complaints of treaty body violations.

Reporting obligations and monitoring

When Treaty Bodies assess reports from State Parties they may also consider information contained in ‘shadow reports’. Shadow reports are those submitted to the Treaty Bodies by NGOs and National Human Rights Institutions (rather than government).

After considering the reports, Treaty Bodies make recommendations (often called Concluding Comments or Recommendations) about how the State Party can improve its compliance with its treaty obligations.

Individual complaints

Some Treaty Bodies have additional powers to receive and consider complaints from individuals who allege they are the victims of human rights violations by the State.