The United Nations Human Rights System

This chapter will focus on the UN Human Rights system, ‘a multitude of entities which vary greatly in their range, remit and composition. Established ad hoc in response to concrete needs rather than as part of any master plan, such institutions have experienced sustained, yet mostly unplanned and uncoordinated, growth and internal development.’ Much of the UN’s system fits this description, although, in its defence, human rights as agreed international standards have proliferated to an extent hitherto unforeseeable. The systems discussed herewith are more involved with monitoring than enforcing, in accordance with the extent to which states allow limitations to their sovereignty.