ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the key organisations and institutions which draft and monitor modern international human rights law. It outlines the institutional framework of those entities with responsibility for human rights and their organisational capacity for monitoring human rights. The evolution of regional organisations with responsibility for monitoring human rights compliance is a comparatively new phenomenon, even by the youthful standards of international human rights law. A considerable number of regional and subregional organizations are active around the world, making important contributions to the stability and prosperity of their members, as well as of the broader international system. Although the Arab League has succeeded in drafting a regional instrument on international human rights, achieving support for the instrument and any enforcement or monitoring machinery has been more problematic. The office for democratic institutions and human rights is a specialised institution of the organisation for security and cooperation in Europe dealing with various issues of concern to human rights.
