INTRODUCTION

Aspiring to promote respect for human rights as expressed in the U.N. Charter of 1945, the United Nations created the U.N. Commission on Human Rights – now the Human Rights Council. Regional organizations – the Organization of American States (OAS), the Council of Europe, and the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union) – have founded similar quasijudicial entities that seek to provide address human rights violations in their respective parts of the world (Steiner, Alston, & Goodman, 2007). This chapter presents a brief overview of global and regional human rights commissions, their evolution, shortcomings, and achievements. It focuses on commissions that function as standing human rights entities of the United Nations or other regional authorities. It does not discuss commissions established for specific purposes, such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.

THE UNITED NATIONS: FROM COMMISSION TO HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

Pursuant to Article 68 of the U.N. Charter requiring that the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) create “commissions in economic and social fields and for the promotion of human rights,” the United Nations Commission on Human Rights was established in 1946 as a “charter-based” or “non-treaty-based” human rights mechanism. By 1948, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights produced the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, adopted that same year by the U.N. General Assembly.