Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Migrant Workers The Role of National Human Rights Institutions
The benefits of establishing a regional human rights mechanism include the potential to:
• narrow the gap between international and national human rights standards
• establish cooperation among countries with diverse human rights policies and practices
• impose mandatory obligations on member States
• provide a mechanism for monitoring compliance of States’ human rights obligations.
Protection and promotion of migrant workers’ rights at the regional level can either involve “soft law”,
which includes voluntary commitments and declarations, or legally binding instruments.
There are currently five regional human rights mechanisms with varying mandates.
Region
Main human rights
mechanism
Year
established
Main charter
Africa
African Commission on
Peoples and Human Rights
1987
African Charter on Human and
Peoples’ Rights (1981)
African Court on Human and
Peoples’ Rights
1998
Inter American Commission on
Human Rights
1959
Americas
American Declaration of the
Rights and Duties of Man (1948)
Charter of the Organization of
American States (1951)
American Convention on Human
Rights (1969)
Inter American Court of
Human Rights
1979
American Convention on Human
Rights (1969)
Arab States
Arab Human Rights
Committee
2009
Arab Charter on Human Rights
(2004)
Europe
European Court of Human
Rights
1959
European Convention for the
Protection and Promotion of
Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms (1950)
European Committee of Social
Rights
2001
European Social Charter (1961)
ASEAN Intergovernmental
Commission on Human Rights
2009
South East Asia
Charter of Fundamental Rights of
the European Union (2000)
ASEAN Charter (2007)
2.1. The European human rights system
The European human rights system is the oldest and the most comprehensive regional human rights
system.126
Europe’s principal human rights mechanisms operate through the Council of Europe (COE) to implement
the European Convention for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
(the European Convention), 1950 and the European Social Charter, 1961.
126
“‘A tongue but no teeth?’: The emergence of a regional human rights mechanism in the Asia Pacific region”; Andrea Durbach,
Catherine Renshaw and Andrew Byrnes; Sydney Law Review; Vol. 31; pp. 211-238.
54 | Chapter 5: Regional mechanisms for the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers