REPORTING TO THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS TREATY BODIES TRAINING GUIDE: Part I — Manual 1. The United Nations Human Rights System This Chapter provides a brief overview of the United Nations Human Rights System – the Treaty Bodies, Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review and Special Procedures. It describes core international human rights treaties and their monitoring mechanisms – the Treaty Bodies. It also explains who could be a Treaty Body member and what the main Treaty Bodies’ functions are. 1.1. Introduction The 1945 United Nations Charter proclaims that one of the aims of the United Nations is to promote and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all. In this context the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, spells out, for the first time in history, the fundamental rights and freedoms that belong to all human beings. Its provisions have been developed in international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Declaration also laid the groundwork for the human rights architecture that is nowadays composed of three main international human rights mechanisms: 1. The human rights Treaty Bodies, which are committees of independent experts whose mandate emanates from the nine core international human rights treaties and one optional protocol (see 1.2 and 1.3). 2. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a peer review by States which involves a review of the human rights records of all UN Member States. The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions it has taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations. As one of the main features of the Council, the UPR is designed to ensure equal treatment for every country when their human rights situations are assessed. For further information on the UPR, including on how the reviews are conducted, please visit: https://goo.gl/8W6YtC. The Human Rights Council was created by the United Nations General Assembly on 15 March 2006 by Resolution 60/251. It is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system made up of 47 States responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe. In 2007 the Council adopted its “Institution-building package” with the aim of guiding its work and setting up its procedures and mechanisms, namely the UPR, the Advisory Committee, the Complaint Procedure and the Special Procedures. *Further information on the Human Rights Council is available at https://goo.gl/v3gg2S 2