ABSTRACT
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)1 are very much at the heart and soul of work to promote and protect human rights. They come in all shapes and sizes ranging from groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which deal with human rights on a worldwide scale, right through to small groups working on a plethora of local issues. NGOs have in particular been central to the development of the United Nations work on human rights, both in relation to the development of new human rights standards and in ensuring that the facts surrounding human rights problems are brought to light. They are, of course, more able to make this kind of contribution given that they are not bound by the same strictures that can encumber large bureaucracies and intergovernmental action.
