C. UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS MACHINERY 56. The United Nations has established a complex network of mechanisms for the adoption of human rights standards, and for their implementation and monitoring. 57. Human rights standards relevant to the administration of justice have been adopted by a range of United Nations bodies, including the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Commission on Human Rights and the periodic United Nations Congresses on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders. The standard-setting process includes the full participation of all Member States, representing all the world's cultural, legal, religious and philosophical traditions. It benefits also from the advice of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), professional associations and relevant experts. 58. The above-mentioned bodies receive substantive assistance in these activities from two departments of the United Nations Secretariat. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has principal responsibility within the Organization for all human rights issues. The Crime Programme of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has principal responsibility for criminal justice matters. 59. Implementation and monitoring mechanisms may be divided into two basic types, according to the source of their mandates: (a) Conventional (i.e. treaty-based) mechanisms: These include committees set up under the terms of international human rights treaties to monitor the implementation of those treaties. Six such bodies are listed below. (b) Extraconventional (i.e. Charter-based) mechanisms: These are the various special rapporteurs, independent experts and working groups established by the Commission on Human Rights to monitor the human rights situations in particular countries or, alternatively, certain human rights phenomena, such as torture, arbitrary detention and disappearances. They are not based on a particular human rights treaty, but rather on the authority of the Economic and Social Council, and its functional Commission on Human Rights, under the Charter of the United Nations. Such mechanisms are listed below. 1. Conventional (treaty-based) mechanisms 60. A number of committees within the United Nations system were established under various international treaties for the purpose of monitoring the compliance of States parties with the provisions of those instruments. The seven principal human rights treaties, and the bodies set up to monitor their implementation, are the following: 18