INTERNATIONAL TREATIES ON HUMAN RUGHTS

INTERNATIONAL TREATIES ON HUMAN RUGHTS 

            With over 186 countries in the world, there is a constant need for these countries to be guided in their relations with one another and to further ensure these countries are in line with the current best practices at the time. These practices could include matters of human rights, commerce, war, conflict and peace. Treaties are instrumental in binding countries or states to certain agreements set out by an international body of other states. Black’s Law Dictionary defines a Treaty as “An agreement formally signed, ratified, or adhered to between two nations or sovereign; an international agreement concluded between two or more states in written form and governed by international law.”[1] International treaties are also sometimes termed conventions, accord or declarations each to suit the taste of the draftsman.

            International treaties which cover the scope of human rights are agreed upon so as to ensure signatory states uphold the fundamental rights of persons living within these states. These treaties enlist the certain rights to be enjoyed by persons within these states, although majority of these treaties enshrine and uphold similar if not the same rights, there a differentiated by the states to which  are signatory to them. The treaties in some cases could be signed by all countries while others are signed by the countries with the same region or under the same international organization an example is the African Union.

            The nations of the world following notable events which saw the desecration of human sanctity and dignity, the need for the protection of human rights was emphasized upon leading to the formation and ratification of several human right treaties or conventions by nations respective and irrespective of regions. These regions have majorly been ratified and adopted by the signatory countries and they are include 

1.  Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
2. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)
3. International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (1966)
4. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965)
5. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979)
6. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984)
7. Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
8. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990)
9. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)
10. International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (2006)
11. African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1981)
12. Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Arica (2003)
13. African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990)
14. African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (2009).

These outlined treaties seek to promote and protect the right of persons generally in the world and in specific regions, notably these treaties pay close attention to certain classes of human rights ensuring that they are well protected in the signatory states. These rights to be protected include the following

1. Civil rights
2. Child rights
3. Women rights
4. Labour rights
5. Migrant rights
6. Refugee rights
7. Economic rights
8. Political rights
9. Cultural rights
10. Right of persons with disabilities .

[1]B A Garner, Black’s Law Dictionary (9thedn, Minnesota: West Publishing Co. 2009)