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UN agencies concerned with human rights

Many specialized agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations have mandates that touch upon human rights. This is hardly surprising since human rights had already been enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. The most important entity of the UN system in this regard clearly is the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

The OHCHR hosts the secretariats of most treaty bodies and the special procedures. While other agencies with the exemption of UNESCO and ILO do not have a procedure to claim individual human rights, UN agencies may be strong partners in efforts to promote human rights, i.e. also in the context of individual complaints. Many agencies carry out own analytic work on human rights.

Other UN agencies that are particularly worth mentioning and are therefore presented at more detail are:

UNDP

UNESCO

UNICEF

ILO

Some more agencies that may be mentioned:

  • The World Bank performs studies on the connection of human rights with development issues.
  • The UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) in Turin, Italy, is a research and training institute contributing to the formulation and implementation of security, crime prevention and criminal justice policies. UNICRI justice, protection and ethics programmes promote the rule of law and the adoption of international standards in the field of crime prevention and the protection of human rights with a special regional focus on countries in transition in Africa, the Balkans and Latin America.
  • The UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) is an institute that carries out research, capacity-development and knowledge management with the goal of achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.
  • The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), a functional commission of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), is dedicated to gender equality and the advancement of women worldwide. The CSW disposes of a complaint procedure regarding violations of human rights that affect the status of women in any country.

Last change: 21.09.11 - 14:13