Enforcement, Monitoring, and Accountability

Writing rights into treaties is only the first step. The persistent challenge of the human rights project is enforcement: what happens when a state violates the standards it has accepted, or never accepted them at all? Because there is no world government with police powers, human rights enforcement relies on a patchwork of political bodies, courts, monitoring mechanisms, and non-governmental pressure. This lesson surveys these mechanisms and assesses their strengths and limits.

UN political machinery

The principal UN political body dedicated to human rights is the Human Rights Council, based in Geneva and established in 2006 to replace the discredited earlier Commission on Human Rights. Made up of member states elected by the General Assembly, the Council debates situations, creates inves