C HAPTER 2. S OURCES , SYSTEMS AND STANDARDS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE OBJECTIVES The objectives of this chapter are: ■ To introduce course presenters and, through them, course participants to the overall existing United Nations framework for the protection of human rights in the administration of justice. ■ To provide an overview of the principal instruments, monitoring mechanisms and authoritative United Nations bodies relevant to the work of prison officials. ■ To highlight selected categories of potential human rights violations which prison officials should be careful to avoid. ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES International human rights law is binding on all States and their agents, including prison officials. Human rights are a legitimate subject for international law, and for international scrutiny. Prison officials are obliged to know, and to apply, international standards on human rights. A. RELEVANCE OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS 12. International norms and standards have various legal effects depending on their source. Thus various levels of States' legal obligations depend on whether the international standards are derived from treaty law, from customary international law or from various bodies of principles, minimum rules and declarations. International norms and standards relating to human rights in the administration of justice have been promulgated by a number of bodies within the United Nations system. Foremost among these have been the Commission on Human Rights, its Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and the periodic United Nations Congresses on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders. These standards have been finally adopted by the General Assembly or the Economic and Social Council, two principal organs of the United Nations. 13. Additionally, the normative content of some of these standards, and details on their proper implementation at the national level, are to be found in the evolving practice of the United Nations treaty bodies, among others the Human Rights Committee, a treaty monitoring body established under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 6