The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The United Nations
The United Nations were founded October 24th 1945 as an intergovernmental organization established to promote international co-operation and as a measure to prevent such horrors from re-occurring, as witnessed during WW2.
At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193.
The UN Headquarters are situated in Manhattan, New York City and enjoy extraterritoriality. Further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi and Vienna.
Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict. The UN has six principal organs. The International Court of Justice is one of them, and not to be confused with the International Criminal Court. The International Court of Justice mainly settles disputes between states.
The General Assembly is an other of the principal organs.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was established by the General Assembly, 20th December 1993. The Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights work with issues related to human rights, and sees that the treaties undersigned by states, are not violated. The Office consists of 9 treaty-bodies and the Human Rights Council. The treaty-bodies relate to the treaties in question, and individual complaints. The Human Rights Council deals with situations in countries in general.
More about the system and how to report violations on the human rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written by the founders of the United Nations in 1948, to point out a set of fundamental birth rights that no-one should be deprived of, and that should be protected by every state - ever to be violated.
The declaration has later been underlined by nine treaties, with their addittional protocols, that are legally binding documents, when undersigned by a state-party.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a permanent international tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, the most serious crimes of concern to the international community.
The ICC was created by the Rome Statute which came into force on 1st of July 2002.
The Court is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, but its proceedings may take place anywhere.
In addition, the ICC only tries those accused of the gravest crimes. The ICC is an independent court, and not a part of the UN body-system
The European Court of Human Rights is one of the bodies under and not to be confused with the United Nations or the International Criminal Court. The Council of Europe was established in 1949 as an international organisation that aims to promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. The Norwegian Labour party politician Torbjørn Jagland is currently the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in 2014. The headquarters of the Council of Europe are in Strasbourg, France.
The European Court of Human Rights enforces
The European Convention on Human Rights, and violations on the conventions can be reported to the Court after a case have been processes by all national courts.
An official form for making a claim is to be used.
The International Criminal Court
The European Court of Human Rights
International Law
The following is a short overview of international organs established to protect human rights, and their protocols.
togetherforhumanrights have done the job for you, and made information on the complaint procedures easily available, as many victims of human rights violations find themselves demotivated and with little or no support.
Violations on UN treaties can be reported to the treaty bodies.
Read more at:
Sources:
Home pages of The United Nations,
The Council of Europe,
The European Court of Human Rights and
The International Criminal Court.
Wikipedia.
Is one of your family members abducted to a secret location?
Are you denied contact with and information about an abducted family-member?
Enforced disappearence should be reported to The United Nations
Please use the form on the right of the home-page:
"Form to submit a communication on a victim of an enforced disappearance" (link above)
Cases of severe, degrading terror and inhumane treatment of family members can be reported to The ICC.
A form made by togetherforhumanrights can be used.