This section is comprised of materials from the book Universal and Regional Human Rights Protection: Cases and Commentaries by four human rights experts, working with the University for Peace, Dr. Magdalena Sepulveda, Christine Chamoun, Gudrun D. Gudmundsdottir and Dr. Theo van Banning. The book was developed in co-operation with Dr. Cecilia Medina and Claudio E. Nash Rojas of the University of Chile, Dr. Christof Heyns and Magnus Killander of the University of Pretoria, Martin Scheinin of Åbo Akademi University and Leo Zwaak of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights.

This section brings together a selection of the case-law and decisions of four important supervisory bodies in the field of international human rights. The aim was to present to the reader an accessible, consistent and broad panorama of the developing case-law resulting from international human rights supervision.

The cases and materials from the various supervisory mechanisms show differences in approach and reasoning but, in the end, also present a remarkable degree of consistency in terms of content and interpretation.

This section is written from an international human rights and international law perspective, with the purpose of contributing to the understanding of international human rights law and the four major international supervisory mechanisms. It is not intended to provide an exhaustive analysis of international human rights case-law or to explain all topics in great detail. It does not cover all major human rights, but only a selection. The aim to publish an expanded version at a later date.

This edition was developed as a practical tool aimed to strengthen the promotion and protection of human rights, and to advance understanding of the importance of case-law in the definition and elaboration of international human rights.