ABSTRACT
The human rights treaty bodies run on a parallel track to the UN Charter-based mechanisms. Multilateral human rights treaties exist on a number of topics, from race discrimination to the rights of migrant workers. Instead of having one central oversight body for all of the treaties, each core human right treaty has its own compliance and oversight bodies embedded within its structure. Some of these treaty bodies allow individuals to raise concerns directly, while others grant access only to states. Human rights treaties have proliferated in recent years along with non-governmental organization involvement in treaty promotion and enforcement. For human rights advocates, the advantage of a treaty setting forth
obligations on a particular issue is that states will commit to specific obligations which directly address that issue. But treaties not only set standards for government conduct, they also educate the public and help create conditions for the voluntary compliance with standards.1
States must also adopt internal legislation and policies to implement applicable human rights standards. In many countries, treaties form the foundation for national legal and policy changes. Where such treaty obligations are not met, human rights advocates have an important tool in the treaty with which to push for social and legal change on particular issues. For example, provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child highlight the practices of trafficking in children, economic exploitation and child labor, and forms of sexual exploitation and abuse.2
