At the international level, human rights are enforced by several mechanisms including:

•Periodic reports from United Nations treaty-based bodies (e.g. Committee on Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD)

• Reports by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (e.g. Amnesty International or the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

• 1503 Complaint Procedure.

•Special Rapporteurs (on Torture, Freedom of Religion and Belief, etc).

•“Naming and Shaming” technique.

Either the Secretary General of the UN, the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, any of the UN human rights committees or the media can make public the human rights violations of any nation. Many nations, including the United States, seeking to avoid this embarrassment, will sometimes change their behavior.

Egypt Video Release  (A statement from UN High Commissioner of Human Rights – Navi Pillay)

The Media’s Role in the Human Rights Movement

•UN Security Council Sanctions

These are most often economic sanctions, but the threat of military sanctions also exists.

In the United States, at the federal level, human rights are enforced by the Civil Rights Division and the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section both at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

In New York State, human rights are mainly enforced through the NYS Division of Human Rights.

Many counties in New York State have a Human Rights Commission that investigate allegations of human rights violations (e.g. Tompkins County Human Rights Commission).