Main United Nations Human Rights instruments and obligations of States Parties

The United Nations system for the promotion and protection of Human Rights is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the core international treaties that have given it legal form. The rights established by these instruments are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated and they belong to each individual person. 1

The nine core United Nations Human Rights treaties are the following:

  • International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted on 16 December, 1966, entered into force on 23 March 1976.
  • International Covenant on economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), adopted on 16 December 1966, entered into force on 3 January 1976.
  • International Convention on the elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), adopted on 21 December 1965, entered into force on 4 January 1969.
  • Convention on the elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted on 18 December 1979, entered into force on 3 September 1981.
  • Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted on 10 December 1984, entered into force on 26 June 1987.
  • Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted on 20 November 1989, entered into force on 2 September 1990.
  • International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, adopted on 18 December 1990, entered into force on 1 July 2003.
  • Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted on 12 December 2006, entered into force on 3 May 2008.
  • International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from enforced Disappearance, open to signature on 6 February 2007, not yet entered into force.

Protocols were added to some of these instruments. These protocols are designed either to develop the protection of certain specific rights (such as a system for prisons’ visit in the case of the Optional Protocol to CAT) or to create mechanisms enabling individuals to submit complaints. Accession to the protocols remains optional for the States Parties to the corresponding conventions.

  • Optional Protocol to ICCPR of 16 December 1966.
  • Second Optional Protocol to ICCPR of 15 December 1989, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.
  • Optional Protocol to the Convention on the elimination of Discrimination Against Women of 10 December 1999.
  • Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict of 25 May 2000.
  • Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography of 25 May 2000.
  • Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture of 18 December 2002.
  • Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 13 December 2006.
  • Optional Protocol to the ICESCR of 10 December 2008.