Human Rights must be considered as one of the major achievements of modern day philosophy. Historically seen, early human rights developed as part of national constitutional law. Today, most states have a constitutional bill of rights, which includes a more or less refined national protection system, as the case may be. Admittedly though, since the Second World War, these domestic bills of rights are increasingly being determined by international law. The international system of human rights protection, particularly universal (global) and regional mechanism are analyzed by the author in this article. Most conventions establish mechanisms to oversee their implementation. In some cases these mechanisms have relatively little power, and are often ignored by member states; in other cases these mechanisms have great political and legal authority, and their decisions are almost always implemented. Examples of the first case include the UN treaty committees, while the best exemplar of the second case is the European Court of Human Rights.