Over the years, the United Nations has established a comprehensive Human Rights Code (International Bill of Human Rights), whose backbone consist of the following nine conventions:

1. International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD, 1965); 
2. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966);
3. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966);
4. Convention against all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1979);
5. International Convention against Torture (CAT, 1984); 
6. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989); 
7. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW, 1990);
8. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, 2006);
9. International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CPED, 2006).

In addition to the enunciation of fundamental rights, the UN has created monitoring mechanisms for each treaty, the so-called Committees or Treaty Bodies, made up of ten to twenty-three independent experts, selected on the basis of their integrity and experience recognised in the field of human rights.

The main function of the Committees is to examine the periodic reports on the implementation of the internationally established standards in the Contracting Country, which states are obliged to present periodically (usually every four or five years). In addition to this procedure, most Committees can carry out monitoring functions through three other mechanisms: field surveys; examination of inter-State communications; and examination of individual communications. The Committees provide then their interpretation of the content of the provisions on human rights by publishing General Comments.