This updated version of the 2005 Handbook for Parliamentarians was jointly prepared by OHCHR and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). The Handbook is based on the conviction that parliaments and their members can play a key role in delivering concretely on human rights. With brief presentations of the international human rights legal framework and international mechanisms which oversee its implementation at the national level, the Handbook looks at how parliaments can contribute to greater human rights protection. The United Nations and its human rights mechanisms, are increasingly reaching out to members of parliament, recognizing that their support is essential to ensuring real and meaningful change for people’s lives across the globe. It is the hope of both IPU and OHCHR that the women and men of every national parliament will use this Handbook to guide their work to deliver that change.
Chapter 1. What are human rights? -- Chapter 2. Which State obligations arise from human rights? -- Chapter 3. International human rights instruments -- Chapter 4. May states restrict human rights? -- Chapter 5. United Nations human rights treaty monitoring bodies -- Chapter 6. Charter-based system of human rights: the United Nations Human Rights Council and its mechanisms -- Chapter 7. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights -- Chapter 8. Regional human rights treaties and monitoring -- Chapter 9. Basic requirements for an effective parliamentary contribution to human rights -- Chapter 10. Parliamentary functions to promote and protect human rights -- Chapter 11. Parliamentary institutional structure and relations with other national stakeholders -- Chapter 12. What parliamentarians should know about civil and political rights -- Chapter 13. What parliamentarians should know about economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development -- Chapter 14. Human rights, terrorism and counter-terrorism -- Chapter 15. Combating impunity: the international criminal court -- Annex. The core international human rights instruments.

234 p. : ill.

Includes bibliographical references.

9789291426577