Which category is explicitly listed as a category of actors involved in promoting and enforcing human rights at the international level?

Which category is explicitly listed as a category of actors involved in promoting and enforcing human rights at the international level?

• A. The United Nations
• B. Intergovernmental organisations
• C. The media
• D. Non-government organisations

Answer: (B)

Intergovernmental organisations are formal bodies created by treaties or agreements between states to manage international affairs, including human rights promotion and enforcement. This category is explicit because IGOs have defined mandates, institutional structures, and mechanisms to monitor, report on, and sometimes compel state compliance with human rights standards. They operate across borders, coordinate actions among many states, and can adopt binding resolutions, establish treaty bodies, and run procedures like periodic reviews to push for improvements. A prime example is the United Nations, which embodies how IGOs work on human rights at the global level, along with regional IGOs like the European Union, African Union, and Organization of American States. The other options describe important actors in their own right, but they are not intergovernmental organizations: the United Nations is itself an IGO, so it’s an instance rather than a category; the media and non-governmental organisations are non-state actors and do not form treaty-based, state-created bodies with formal international enforcement mechanisms.

Intergovernmental organisations are formal bodies created by treaties or agreements between states to manage international affairs, including human rights promotion and enforcement. This category is explicit because IGOs have defined mandates, institutional structures, and mechanisms to monitor, report on, and sometimes compel state compliance with human rights standards. They operate across borders, coordinate actions among many states, and can adopt binding resolutions, establish treaty bodies, and run procedures like periodic reviews to push for improvements.

A prime example is the United Nations, which embodies how IGOs work on human rights at the global level, along with regional IGOs like the European Union, African Union, and Organization of American States. The other options describe important actors in their own right, but they are not intergovernmental organizations: the United Nations is itself an IGO, so it’s an instance rather than a category; the media and non-governmental organisations are non-state actors and do not form treaty-based, state-created bodies with formal international enforcement mechanisms.