Charter Bodies and Treaty Bodies: Mapping the UN Rights System

The UN human rights system can look like a maze, but it rests on two foundations. The first is the UN Charter of 1945, which commits every member state to promote 'universal respect for, and observance of, human rights'. Bodies created under the Charter, such as the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly's Third Committee and the Office of the High Commissioner, can examine any member state, whether or not it has ratified a particular treaty. The second foundation is the set of human rights treaties.

Each treaty creates obligations only for the states that ratify it, and each has its own committee of experts to monitor compliance. The two tracks work differently: Charter bodies are mostly made up of governments and are therefore political, while treaty bodies are made up of independent experts and are more legal in style. Understanding this division explains why a state can be criticised in one forum while praised in another, and why activists often use both.