Human Rights. Major International Instruments. Status as at 30 June 2011
Published annually, this document presents data on States’ ratifications of universal and regional human rights instruments and allows a comparative analysis that may reveal trends and developments in the acceptance of human rights standards worldwide. It is available in English/French and English/Spanish.
This publication offers up-to-date data concerning ratification, accession or succession by States to more than one hundred human rights instruments, as well as reports on the development of new instruments, at both the universal and regional levels.
2011 marks the anniversary of the adoption of several important universal and regional treaties: the 60th anniversary of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the International Labour Organization Convention (No. 100) concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women workers for Work of Equal Value; the 50th anniversary of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the 30th anniversary of the ILO Convention (No. 156) concerning Equal Opportunities and Equal Treatment for Men and Women Workers: Workers with family responsibilities.
Since the release of the 2010 edition of this publication, some important developments have taken place particularly at the universal level. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons against Enforced Disappearance (2006) acquired the twenty necessary ratifications that allowed its entry into force on 23 December 2010. This Convention, which is the first international binding instrument concerning the practice of enforced disappearance, entails the establishment of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances to monitor its implementation. This Committee became the tenth United Nations human rights treaty body.
Another major progress has been marked by the adoption of the International Labour Organization Convention (No. 189) concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers in June 2011. The purpose of this instrument is to ensure the effective protection of the human rights of all domestic workers and to improve their working and living conditions.
Additionally, the Human Rights Council adopted in March 2011 the Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training. Albeit not a binding instrument, this Declaration constitutes the first international legal text entirely dedicated to this issue, thus acknowledging the importance of education for the protection of human rights.
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