Apart from the local factors of shared cultural values and histories, the modesty with which human rights were taken on agenda within the United Nations encouraged regional organisations to set up their own system for the promotion and protection of human rights. Under the regional treaties, the state parties allocated functional responsibility to commissions or courts. Three instruments which have acquired primacy in that pursuit and done phenomenally well are; The European Convention, the American Convention and the African Charter.
1. The Statute of the Council of Europe was adopted on 5 May 1949, and it came into force on 3 August 1949. The Statute defines as a condition for membership that ‘every member of the Council of Europe must accept the principles of the rule of law and of the enjoyment by all persons within its jurisdiction of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and collaborate sincerely and effectively in the realisation of the aim of the Council’ (Art. 3). Indeed, even prior to the signing of the Statute, it was understood that the organisation’s first task should be to adopt a Charter on Human Rights, since that was one of the primary aims of the European Movement at the origin of the establishment of the Council of Europe. The negotiations were and were finalised by 1950, allowing the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR)- usually referred to as the European Convention on Human Rights which entered into force on 3 September 1953. The speed at which the negotiations proceeded was truly remarkable, considering the ambitious nature of the text. For the first time, an international jurisdiction, the European Court of Human Rights, was set up, empowered to receive files submitted by the European Commission on Human Rights for its consideration, on the basis of individual applications by victims of human rights violations. The ratification of the Convention is now considered a condition for membership of the Council of Europe. This has not always been the case. France, for instance, although it is among the founding States of the Council of Europe which it hosts, only ratified the European Convention on Human Rights in 1974.
2. The role of the Organisation of American States in the promotion and protection of human rights presents striking similarities with that of the Council of Europe. In 1948, the Pan-American Union was renamed the Organization of American States (OAS), a ‘regional arrangement’ within the new United Nations world architecture. At the time, it had 21 members, including the United States. The membership expanded gradually. A number of small English-speaking island nations of the Caribbean joined in the 1960s, after they achieved independence; Canada acceded in 1990. The OAS today comprises 35 Member State. The American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) was adopted in San Jose, Costa Rica, on 22 November 1969, although it did not enter into force until 18 July 1978. It is the most important human rights instrument in the inter-American system. Largely inspired by the European Convention on Human Rights
3.The trajectory followed by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union, was slightly different. The Charter founding the OAU, signed in Addis-Abeba on 25 May 1963, stated that one of the objectives of the new organization was to "promote international cooperation, having due regard to the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" That reference was mainly symbolic: in fact, the principle of non-interference in domestic affairs was much more highly valued, as the OAU members had only recently obtained their independence and were particularly sensitive to affirming their sovereignty. Only later would human rights be put on the agenda of the organization, when certain dictatorships fell in 1979 and democratic movements gained visibility throughout the continent. The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (Banjul Declaration) was adopted on 27 June 1981, and it entered into force on 21 October 1986. In the Preamble of the African Charter, the OAU members state that they are "taking into consideration the virtues of their historical tradition and the values of African civilization which should inspire and characterise their reflection on the concept of human and peoples’ rights". Indeed, the Charter presents a number of specificities that, to a certain extent, distinguish it from the other comparable human rights instruments The Organisation of African Unity (now renamed the African Union) also established its own mechanism, although later and under a less ambitious form. A very peculiar feature of the Charter is that it provides provisions for the duties also.
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