Fundamental human rights get legal expression on diverse international and regional documents. Such documents have been signed -and ratified in many cases- by the Member States of the United Nations (UN) and of the Organization of American States (OAS).

These documents are nowadays named as a whole "Triads of Human Rights".  However, new documents on human rights keep adding to these triads, according to the needs of the most disadvantaged groups suffering violations of their fundamental rights.  Some of them are more recent instruments on discrimination -gender, racial, etc.-, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, etc.

The text and/or reference for these Conventions and for the documents listed in the two triads examined in the paragraphs below are available in our "DOCUMENTS" section.

UNITED NATIONS (UN):

The main human rights documents of the UN are compiled in what is known as the International Bill of Human Rights.  This International Bill contains:

a)            Universal Declaration of Human Rights

b)            International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

c)            International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

It also includes the two facultative protocols to the last mentioned Covenant.

ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES (OAS):

Although there is no Interamerican Bill of human rights, according to the UN model, the OAS has three equivalent documents:

a)            American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man

b)            American Convention on Human Rights - also known as Pact of San José, Costa Rica

c)            Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - also known as Protocol of San Salvador