Part 3 The United Nations: What it Does, 22 Promotion and Protection of Human Rights

Abstract

The UN Charter contains several provisions on human rights. Indeed, one of the purposes of the UN is ‘[t]o achieve co-operation … in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion’. The promotion and protection of human rights is also spread throughout the UN system, from the General Assembly and Security Council in New York, to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Council in Geneva, to field presences across the world. This chapter discusses the principal organs involved in the protection and promotion of human rights, including the Human Rights Council and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Also covered are human rights treaties and treaty bodies, human rights conferences, and Geneva–New York relations.