International human rights instruments can be classified into two categories: declarations, adopted by bodies such as the United Nations General Assembly, which are not legally binding although they may be politically so; and conventions, which are legally binding instruments concluded under international law.

International human rights instruments can be divided further into global instruments, to which any state in the world can be a party, and regional instruments, which are restricted to states in a particular region of the world.

Most conventions establish mechanisms to oversee their implementation. In some cases these mechanisms have relatively little power, and are often ignored by member states; in other cases these mechanisms have great political and legal authority, and their decisions are almost always implemented. Examples of the first case include the UN treaty committees, while the best exemplar of the second case is the European Court of Human Rights.

Mechanisms also vary as to the degree of individual access to them. Under some conventions – e.g. the European Convention on Human Rights (as it currently exists) – individuals are permitted automatically to take individual cases to the enforcement mechanisms; under most, however, (e.g. the UN conventions) individual access is contingent on the acceptance of that right by each state party, either by a declaration at the time of ratification or accession, or through ratification of or accession to a protocol to the convention.

Declarations

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN, 1948)
• American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (OAS, 1948)

Conventions

Global

• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
• International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
• Convention Against Torture (CAT)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
• International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (MWC)
• Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

Regional: Africa

• African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights

Regional: America

• American Convention on Human Rights
• Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture
• Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons
• Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women
• Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities

Regional: Europe

• European Convention on Human Rights
• European Convention on Torture
• European Social Charter