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This chapter delivers an account of the way in which the engagement between States and the United Nations human rights treaty bodies plays a clear, but often overlooked, role in shaping customary international law. It proceeds from the accepted notion that international organisations contribute to international law-making in a number of ways. It argues that the responses by States to human rights treaty body interpretations support a conclusion that treaty bodies can, and do, contribute to the development of customary international law through their relationships with States parties. As a starting point, this chapter delivers an account of the treaty bodies as primary interpreters of human rights treaties and contributors to the development of human rights law followed by consideration of the prohibition against torture as a human right that is also recognised as a customary rule of international law. While it is clear that the core prohibition against torture is undoubtedly recognised in customary international law, the analysis demonstrates that further dimensions of the prohibition reflecting treaty body interpretations are on the horizon.

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) were established after a long process of consideration at the United Nations. Since 1993, they have become widely accepted institutions that exist throughout the world. Furthermore, their voices on human rights are listened to both nationally and internationally. This chapter examines how NHRIs have arrived at this point by exploring the history and establishment of NHRIs at the United Nations, from the earliest considerations of their establishment in the mid-1940s up to the adoption of the United Nations Paris Principles in 1993. It then considers the progress made by NHRIs in establishing and developing their own networks and how their engagement with regional and international organizations have been finalized.

This chapter starts by outlining the existing models of disability and by relating these models to the Convention. The aim is not to advance debates about the models themselves but to examine the extent to which these models have influenced the CRPD’s own understanding of disability. The focus lies especiallyon the social model of disability, which has transformed the view of disability around the world. This is followed by an investigation of the way in which this understanding of disability bears upon the entire field of international human rights law. The chapter further examines the mainstreaming of disability and its consideration by the treaty bodies as well as its consequences for the field as a whole. It finally looks beyond international human rights law by evaluating how disability is addressed by UN agencies.