Key Human Rights documents

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) is the first universally legally binding human rights instrument concerning enforced disappearance. It was preceded by the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (1992 Declaration), proclaimed by the General Assembly in its Resolution 47/133 of 18 December 1992, which remains a valid reference as a body of principles for all States and some of its provisions reflect customary international law on the subject.

The Convention was the culmination of more than thirty years of work by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, a body established in 1946 to monitor the situation of women and to promote women's rights.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most universally accepted human rights instrument, ratified by every country in the world except two. The Convention incorporates the full range of human rights - civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights - of children into one single document.

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict aims to protect children from recruitment and use in hostilities.

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on acommunications procedure (OPIC) entered into force on 14 April 2014. It entitles the Committee on the Rights of the Child, a body of 18 independent experts, to receive and consider communications (complaints) submitted by or on behalf of an individual or group of individuals within the jurisdiction of a State party who claim to be victims of violations of any of the rights protected by the Convention and/or, the substantial Optional Protocols thereto (Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and Optional Protocol to the Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict).