Human rights organizations are organizations which advocate for human rights through identification of their violation. They include inter-governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations. In this section you would find several resources on human rights organizations and state members of these organizations.
Below are various links to some important human rights global and regional inter-governmental organizations which focuses on the promotion and protection of human rights through drafting of treaties and other international legal instruments.
Member States of Various IGOs
Listed below are member states of some inter- governmental organizations, by clicking the following links, you get to see these states and their dates of joining these organizations
Non-Governmental Organizations
Non -governmental organization, or NGO, is “is a non-for-profit association of people working for the promotion and protection of human rights in either a general (all human rights) or a special (specific, focused on certain human rights issues) NGOs may be local, national, regional or international.” (Cartwright and Conde 160)
Below are various links to some of the most prominent non-governmental organizations devoted to protecting human rights in various countries throughout the world.
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all.
The human right action center works on issues of the universal declaration of human rights and uses the arts and technologies to innovate, create and develop new strategies to stop human rights abuses.
Human rights watch investigates and expose human rights violations, hold abusers accountable and challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law.
In addition to some of the prominent non-governmental organizations listed above, there are other NGOs that focus on human right issues. Some of these NGOs operate on a worldwide basis while some are regional in scope. You can access these NGOs by clicking the worldwide NGO directory link.
The University of Minnesota’s human rights library maintains a list of human rights NGO link.
Global Inter-Governmental Organizations
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
An entity of the U.N whose duty is to ensure universal enjoyment of all human rights, to remove obstacles to their effective implementation and to enhance the cooperation of human-rights related activities within the United Nations.
Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council
The term special procedures refers to individual experts or group of experts appointed by the human rights council to independently investigate and report on gross and systematic human rights violations.
International Labor Organization
The International Labor Organization is a United Nations agency that sets international labor standards and promotes social protection and work opportunities for all.
United Nations human Rights Council
An inter- governmental body within the U.N made up of 47 states with the main purpose of addressing situations of human rights violations and making recommendations on them.
Anti Trafficking Global Organizations Combating Human Trafficking
Anti-trafficking global organizations are organizations that combat human trafficking in several countries in the world, some of these organizations have subsidiaries in other countries. Their sphere of operation is not limited to certain countries. Listed below are some of these organizations.
Regional Inter-Governmental Organizations
Inter-Governmental Organizations, or IGOs are "organizations whose members are the governments of different countries, inter-governmental organizations are either global, meaning they are open to every country, such as the United Nations, or regional, meaning they are open only to a state in a particular geographic region." (Cartwright and Conde 128)
