United Nations Conventions and Declarations

United Nations (UN) conventions and declarations signify an important step in the promotion and protection of international human rights. They establish the international standards that are intended to be transposed into national laws and policies. Some conventions and declarations specifically address violent acts, such as torture or cruel or degrading punishment or treatment. In other cases, instruments frame protection against violence as related rights, such as the right to life, the right to liberty and security of person, and the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Increasingly, advocates and scholars have invoked the protection of UN conventions and declarations to promote the human rights of victims of interpersonal violence. For example, in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, advocates lobbied the UN to explicitly state that domestic violence is a violation of women's fundamental human rights, which are protected by UN human rights declarations and conventions.

A convention, also known as a treaty or covenant, is a legally binding instrument for states that ratify it. Once a state ratifies a convention, it signals its intent to conform to it and is legally bound to it. Thus, the state commits to ensuring its own legal system and practices comply with these international standards. When ratifying a treaty, a state may make reservations to some of the treaty's provisions it does not or is unable to accept. A state may also derogate from provisions in specific situations, such as a public emergency that threatens the life of a nation. However, there are some human rights that are so fundamental, such as the right to life or freedom from torture, that no derogations or reservations are ever allowed. A declaration, however, is not legally binding on states and lacks enforcement provisions. Nevertheless, a declaration sets forth agreed-upon standards and represents a statement of intent by the international community.

There are many international treaties and declarations that protect against interpersonal violence. Although some of these instruments prohibit specific acts of violence, others provide protection against related rights or situations that increase vulnerability to violence. These instruments set the standards by which to monitor compliance and, in some cases, can be used as a complaint mechanism when states have failed to adequately protect citizens from violence.