International Human Rights Institutions, Tribunals, and Courts

1. A World Court of Human Rights

   • Manfred Nowak

2. Agenda for Strengthening Human Rights Institutions

   • Gerd Oberleitner

3. ASEAN Human Rights Mechanisms

   • Sriprapha Petcharamesree

4. Enforcement of International Humanitarian Law

   • Gentian Zyberi

5. Gender in the UN: CEDAW and the Commission on the Status of Women

   • Jane Connors

6. Human Rights Mechanisms in the Arab World: Politics and Protection

   • Zaid Eyadat, Hani Okasheh

7. Human Rights: Future of Ad Hoc Tribunals

   • Milena Sterio

8. Human Rights: The Nuremberg Legacy

   • Miriam Cohen

9. International Labour Organization

   • Maria Victoria Cabrera-Ormaza

10. Introduction to Human Rights Institutions: Legitimacy and Authority

    • Steven Wheatley

11. National Human Rights Institutions

    • Kirsten Roberts Lyer

12. Selected Human Rights Instruments

    • Gerd Oberleitner

13. The African Commission and Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

    • Manisuli Ssenyonjo

14. The European Court of Human Rights: Achievements and Prospects

    • Philip Leach

15. The European Union Fundamental Rights Agency

    • Gabriel N. Toggenburg

16. The Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights

    • Veronica Gomez

17. The International Criminal Court between Human Rights and Realpolitik

    • Luigi Daniele

18. The UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

    • Fons Coomans

19. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Field Operations

    • William G. O’Neill

20. The UN Human Rights Committee

    • Anja Seibert-Fohr

This book introduces readers to the major human rights institutions, courts, and tribunals and critically assesses their legacy as well as the promise they hold for realizing human rights globally, and the challenges they face in doing so. It traces the rationale of setting up international institutions, courts, and tribunals with the aim of ensuring respect for international human rights law and presents their historic development, and critically analyzes their contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights. At the same time, it asks which promises old and new (and envisaged) human rights institutions hold for safeguarding human rights in light of continuing violations and recent global trends in human rights and politics.


The first section presents institutions created within the framework of the United Nations. The second part of the volume assesses how international criminal tribunals have reframed human rights violations as individual criminal acts. The third part of the volume is devoted to established and emerging regional human rights bodies and courts around the world.

• human rights tribunal
• international humanitarian law
• international criminal law
• International Criminal Court
• International Military Tribunal
• transitional justice
• truth and reconciliation commission
• gender equality
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• UN Human Rights Council
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
• UN Committee of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• Nuremberg Trials
• Tokyo Trials
• European Court of Human Rights
• Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights
• African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
• African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples' Rights
• Arab Human Rights Commission
• ASEAN Human Rights Commission

• UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Human Security, University of Graz, Graz, Austria

  Gerd Oberleitner

Gerd Oberleitner is UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Human Security and Director of the European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy at the University of Graz and Associate Professor of International Law at the Institute of International Law and International Relations, also at the University of Graz. He has served as Legal Adviser in the Human Rights Department of the Austrian Foreign Ministry, was Lecturer in Human Rights at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Visiting Fellow at the LSE’s Centre for the Study of Human Rights, and has taught and researched at the European Inter-University Centre in Venice, the Université du Quebéc à Montréal, the University of Ljubljana, Prishtina, and Rutgers University. He teaches in the Global Campus of Regional Human Rights Master Programmes.

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