Human rights
The United Nations was the first international organization to address the issue of human rights. The UN Charter contains several references to human rights, and states that human rights are universal, without distinction of any kind such as race, sex, language or religion and national or social origin.
Human rights topics
The UN Human Rights Office works on a wide range of human rights topics.
Civic space & democracy
Development & living in dignity
Equality & non-discrimination
- Freedom of religion and belief
- Minorities and indigenous peoples
- Racial discrimination
- Rights of the disabled
- Rights of the child
- Women's rights
Justice & the rule of law
Peace & security
The UN work on human rights
The human rights perspective permeates the whole UN organization. Virtually all United Nations bodies and specialized agencies are involved, to some extent, in the protection of human rights.
The initial focus on civil and political rights and certain economic and social rights is expanding to include global socioeconomic development. This expansive definition of human rights encompasses among others the right to:
- adequate housing
- democracy
- freedom from extreme poverty
- food
- clean environment
- education
- development
Thematic issues addressed by the Human Rights Council include:
- the use of mercenaries
- the independence of judges and lawyers
- arbitrary detention
- the rights of internally displaced persons
- the rights of migrants
- illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products
- enforced and involuntary disappearances
- the effects of economic reform policies and foreign debt on the full enjoyment of human rights.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Charter of the United Nations is the first international treaty with aims, which are expressly based on universal respect for human rights. This has served as the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was adopted in the form of a General Assembly resolution, A/RES/217(III), on 10 December 1948.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is the only common standard covering the full range of human rights. It is not, in principle, legally binding but provides guiding principles for all peoples and nations, stating that the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family are the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. The Declaration is considered one of the most important documents of the 20th century, serving as a fundamental authority in multilateral debates in the United Nations and elsewhere and as a powerful factor in establishing the advancement of international human rights law.
The UDHR became the starting point for the development of many human rights instruments internationally and regionally, and the United Nations has made considerable efforts to ensure the protection and promotion of human rights by drawing up conventions and declarations.
The United Nations is at work on many fronts in promoting and protecting human rights, and its role and scope of action continue to expand. This is elaborated by the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his report The Question of Intervention (1999): "As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I have made human rights a priority in every programme the United Nations launches and in every mission we embark upon. I have done so because the promotion and defence of human rights is at heart of every aspect of our work and every article of our Charter".
Except for the Human Rights Bodies, there are a large number of UN bodies involved in the protection and promotion of human rights, so when seeking information, it is essential to have narrowed down and specified the sort of questions you need answered.
The UN structure of Human Rights
The United Nations has developed a system to monitor the implementation of respect for human rights. The UN structure of Human Rights consists of the UN Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN expert committees, which monitors the compliance of the core international human rights treaties (conventions).
Human Rights Council
The Human Rights Council (HRC) is responsible for promoting and protecting human rights through different mechanisms. The Council evaluates the fulfilment of all states of all their human rights obligations.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has the principal responsibility for UN human rights activities including the coordination of UN human rights activities, the promotion of international cooperation for human rights and the development of new human rights standards. The High Commissioner also responds to serious violations of human rights and undertakes human rights field activities and operations. OHCHR supports the work of the United Nations human rights mechanisms, such as the Human Rights Council and the core treaty bodies. The administrative centre is based in Genèva.
Expert committees and the core treaties
The core conventions are the United Nations' main tools for the protection of human rights. Countries that have ratified the conventions have undertaken to act in accordance with its contents. Implementation of these treaties by the State parties is monitored by human rights treaty bodies.
To the monitoring bodies there is a Special Rapporteur attached, who is appointed by the Human Rights Council. This is an independent expert who examines and reports back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The Special Rapporteurs are part of the special procedures of the Human Rights Council.
Special procedures is the mechanisms to address either specific country mandates or thematic mandates in all parts of the world.
The UN core international human rights treaties
There are nine core international human rights instruments. Each of these instruments has established a committee of experts, so called human rights treaty bodies, to monitor implementation of the treaty provisions by its States parties. Some of the treaties are supplemented by optional protocols dealing with specific concerns.
Human rights treaty bodies and their conventions, optional protocols, working methods, reporting and ratifications
Core convention | Date | Treaty body |
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination | Adopted 1965, | |
Adopted 1966, | ||
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights | Adopted 1966, | |
Convention on The Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women | Adopted 1979, | |
Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment | Adopted 1984, | |
Adopted 1989, | ||
Adopted 1990, | ||
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance | Adopted 2006, | |
Adopted 2006, |
UN document symbols
The UN document symbols for documents from the major UN human rights bodies:
E/CN.4/ | Commission on Human Rights (defunct in 2006) |
A/HRC/ | Human Rights Council (supercedes Commission on HR in 2006) |
E/CN.6/ | Commission on the Status of Women |
CCPR/ | Human Rights Committee (treaty body for ICCPR) |
E/C.12/ | Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (treaty body for International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) |
CERD/ | Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (treaty body for Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination) |
CEDAW/ | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (treaty body for Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) |
CAT/ | Committee against Torture (treaty body for Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment) |
CAT/OP/ | Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (treaty body for Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture) |
CRC/ | Committee on the Rights of the Child (treaty body for Convention on the Rights of the Child) |
CRPD/ | Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (treaty body for Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol) |
CMW/ | Committee on Migrant Workers (treaty body for International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families) |
CED/ | Committee on Enforced Disappearances (treaty body for International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance) |
More on UN and human rights
- Drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides access to the full text of the historical documents of all meetings from 1946-1948 that led to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- Audiovisual Library of International Law. Procedural history, documents and audio visual material from the making of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- World Conference on Human Rights, 14-25 June 1993, Vienna. The final document Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA) comprises a plan of action for the continuation of UN human rights activities.
- Yearbook of the United Nations, Part Two: Human Rights provides an excellent overview of the work of the United Nations with a detailed subject index.Websites and research guides.
- International Human Rights Law. At OHCHR website human rights declarations and conventions are posted.
- Monitoring the core international human rights treaties. Learn more about the treaty bodies: What they are and how they work.
Websites and research guides
- Protect Human Rights. Human rights issues with links to UN main bodies and focal points and full text documents and reports.
- UN Human Rights Documentation. A research guide by the Dag Hammarskjöld library, New York.
- UN and human rights by UNA Sweden. (In Swedish)
Human rights, conventions and declarations
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Swedish | in English
- Resolution 217 A (III), /A/RES/217(III) adopted by the UN General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 during its 183rd plenary meeting.
- The Core International Human Rights Instruments and their monitoring bodies.
- Universal Human Rights Index - UHRI. Human rights recommendations from all parts of the UN system: the UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies, the Human Rights Council mechanisms Universal Periodic Review and Special Procedures. Each document links to other related information in the database.
- Charter-based Body Database. Documents and reports of the Human Rights Council, its predecessor and their subsidiaries and parent organs. Maintained by OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights).
- Treaty Body Database. Fulltext documents from the UN human rights treaty monitoring bodies.
- Yearbook on Human Rights 1946-1988
- OHCHR website for background information, documents and reports.
- Research guides by the UN library Dag Hammarskjöld Library:
UN documents and publications in catalogues and databases
- United Nations Digital Library. UN official documents and open access publications, UN maps, UN voting data and speeches.
- UN iLibrary. UN publications online covering different topics.
- ODS (Official Document System) is an full-text database of UN documents published since 1993, including digitized documents published between 1946 and 1993.
- Daily list of documents. Documents published for the day, with full text links, can be found in the United Nations full text database ODS.
- UNBIS Thesaurus is a multilingual database of the controlled vocabulary used to describe UN documents.
- Index to proceedings is an annual bibliographic guide to the proceedings and documentation of the major UN organs. The index includes:
- a list of all documents
- a comprehensive subject index
- an index to speeches
- a voting chart of resolutions
- United Nations Documents Index (in United Nations Digital Library). References to all documents by subject area are published. A collection of indexes is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld and Law Library, Uppsala, Sweden and the UN Library in New York and the UN library in Geneva.