Human Rights Enforcement

Human rights are one of the main branches of international and European Union law. Developed after the end of the Second World War as a reaction of war atrocities, the international law concerning human rights has achieved two important goals: the recognition of fundamental rights in favour of all human beings without distinction of any kind, and the imposition on every State of the international community to develop laws and policies compliant with the very core of fundamental rights. The recognition of human rights has been accompanied by the creation of monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. At the international universal level, within the United Nations Organization, it has been established a system of continuous dialogue between specialized UN organs and member States. While in some regional contexts (between them, Europe has the most evolved system) we also find international Courts that are in many cases able to adopt binding acts against States. The international and regional systems of organs aiming at the protection of fundamental rights have given an extremely impulse to the continuous developments of human rights, creating new rights and interpreting them accordingly with the evolving societies. This work has favored the implementation of principles such as freedom, equality and justice for all, that should be at the very base of all human societies.