I teach human rights and my students are always surprised about how many human rights treaties they are.  They are also fascinated at how different countries ratify certain treaties – or don’t. 

 

Here are some of the core treaties:

 

Date
Monitoring Body
ICERD International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
21 Dec 1965
ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
16 Dec 1966
ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
16 Dec 1966
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
18 Dec 1979
CAT Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
10 Dec 1984
CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child
20 Nov 1989
ICMW International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
18 Dec 1990
CPED International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
20 Dec 2006
CRPD Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
13 Dec 2006
ICESCR – OP Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
10 Dec 2008
ICCPR-OP1 Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
16 Dec 1966
ICCPR-OP2 Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty
15 Dec 1989
OP-CEDAW Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
10 Dec 1999
OP-CRC-AC Optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict
25 May 2000
OP-CRC-SC Optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography
25 May 2000
OP-CRC-IC Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure 19 Dec 2011
OP-CAT Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
18 Dec 2002
OP-CRPD Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
12 Dec 2006

 

The University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Library has an extensive list of different human rights treaties and their implementation around the world.   Here are some links for your enlightenment – you may be surprised at what you learn.

 

http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/ratification-index.html

http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/instree/ainstlsa2.html

 

This video gives you an overview of how treaty bodies protect everyone’s rights everywhere!