Ethical & Legal Instruments
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Binding treatyConvention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)
Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1984 and in force since 1987, this treaty defines torture and commits every state party to prevent it in any territory under its jurisdiction. Its central rule admits no exception: neither war, internal political instability, any other public emergency, nor an order from a superior officer can ever justify torture. It also bars returning anyone to a state where they would be in danger of being tortured, and reaches beyond torture itself to other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
1984 · 16 provisions
AMISOM Public Information (photo: Ilyas Ahmed)
Binding treatyConvention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 and in force since 1981, CEDAW defines discrimination against women as any distinction, exclusion or restriction based on sex that impairs women's enjoyment of human rights on equal terms with men, in any field of life. States parties undertake to write equality into their constitutions and laws, to provide legal protection through competent tribunals, and to modify or abolish discriminatory laws, regulations, customs and practices. Its premise is that a country's full development, the welfare of the world and the cause of peace all require women's maximum participation on equal terms.
1979 · 16 provisions
Robert Stansfield / DFID - UK Department for International Development
Binding treatyConvention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989 and the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world, the Convention sets out the rights of every human being below the age of eighteen. Its organising rule is that in all actions concerning children the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration, and that the rights it lists apply to every child without discrimination, including discrimination based on what a child's parents or guardians do. States commit to implementing them to the maximum extent of their available resources.
1989 · 41 provisions
National Park Service
Binding treatyConvention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006 and in force since 2008, this Convention exists to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights by persons with disabilities, and respect for their inherent dignity. Its defining move is to treat disability as something produced by the interaction between a person's long-term impairment and the attitudinal and environmental barriers around them, rather than as a defect in the person. Accessibility, individual autonomy and full inclusion in society run through the whole text, with particular attention to women, girls and children with disabilities.
2006 · 33 provisions
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Binding treatyInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
One of the two covenants that turned the Universal Declaration into binding law, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966 and in force since 1976. It carries the civil and political half of that inheritance. Its preamble grounds those rights in the inherent dignity of the human person, and states plainly that the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want is reachable only where civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights are secured together.
1966 · 29 provisions