LibGuides: Human Rights Law: Treaties and Conventions

International Human Rights Treaties and Conventions

International Bill of Human Rights

The International Bill of Human Rights is an informal name given to one General Assembly resolution and two international treaties established by the United Nations.

Core International Human Rights Instruments

The United Nations human rights treaties are at the core of the international system for the promotion and protection of human rights. Each of these treaties has established a committee of experts (the 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.

Other Relevant Instruments

Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA) 1993
Adopted by consensus at the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993. Created the UNHCHR when endorsed by GA Res 48/121
Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees
Text of the 1951 Convention, the 1967 Protocol, and UNGA Resolution 2198 (XXI), with an introduction by the UNHCR
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007
Adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007
Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity 2001
Adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
International Labour Organisation (ILO) instruments
Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO)
International Convention on the Suppression and Prevention of the Crime of Apartheid 1973
Adopted by the UN General Assembly on 30 November 1973
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969

Treaty Related Blogs

Optional protocol to CEDAW
By Simone Cusack. Unofficial updates about the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

Treaty Research Guides

An Introduction to Sources for Treaty Research
GlobaLex guide by Mark Engsberg and Mary Beth Chappell.
ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law: Treaties
American Society of International Law electronic resource guide written by Jill McC. Watson.
International Human Rights
The Electronic Information System for International Law developed by the American Society of International Law. This section of EISIL highlights important instruments and web resources for researching various topics within human rights as well as the different regional systems.
Treaties and International Agreements
by Marci Hoffman & Michael Lindsey, Berkeley Law Library. Includes a comprehensive list of other guides and a list of the general types of sources that might contain treaty texts.
Treaty Research Guide
From Georgetown Law Library.

UN Treaty Bodies

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

Each treaty has a corresponding treaty body which administers the treaty, keeps track of state parties and their reservations and declarations and receives and responds to reports compiled by state parties. Committees may publish interpretations of the content of human rights provisions in the form of General Comments (or General Recommendations) on thematic issues.

Treaty Resources

Bayefsky's United Nations Human Rights Treaties
Provides links to reports, concluding observations, ratifications, reservations and declarations, jurisprudence and other types of documents on the major U.N. human rights treaties. It is searchable by type of document, country or subject matter.
Humanitarian Law Treaty Database
Provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Full-text access to 100 treaties, the current status of signatures, ratifications, accessions, and successions to the treaties, and commentaries to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Protocols. Treaties can be accessed by topic, date, or country.
International Human Rights Instruments
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Provides access to treaties, general comments and general recommendations of the treaty bodies.
Refugee and Asylum Law Treaties
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library.
Refworld Legal Collection
Provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Sort by type to find treaties and other international legal instruments.
United Nations Treaty Body Database
Provided by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Can search by country, U.N. document symbol, treaty, and type of document.
United Nations Treaty Collection
Includes all multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations and those formerly deposited with the League of Nations, their latest status and a link to the full texts.
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library
Comprehensive collection of human rights documents, including: treaties and other international instruments; UN documents relating to its organs, treaty-based committees, specialised agencies, tribunals, world conferences and UN reform.

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Human Rights Law: Treaties and Conventions