Guide to Regional Mechanisms

There are numerous regional human rights bodies around the world, and this guide attempts to introduce the main ones for children’s rights detailed below. This guide offers the following information: introductions to each of the mechanisms (what are they, what do they do on children’s rights, and examples of how to use them for children’s rights advocacy), examples of successful cases, and glossaries of key terms for each regional system.

Regional human rights systems were developed to reflect regional values and offer a more specific framework than the UN system. Such a framework can resonate more strongly with local realities and allow for different approaches to enforcing standards. Unlike the UN system, some regional human rights systems (e.g. both the Inter-American and the African) spell out the duties that individuals have to society, as well as their rights.

View the complete guide here.