Eighty Years of the UN Human Rights Mechanisms: Evolution and Future Prospects

MAO Junxiang*

The year 2025 marked the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (UN). Over the past eight decades, the UN has played an irreplaceable and important role in safeguarding peace and security, advancing economic and social development, and protecting human rights. It has evolved into the most important multilateral platform for advancing global governance. In the field of human rights, the UN Charter enshrines “promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion” as one of the UN’s core purposes, and sets forth a series of provisions on human rights. Driven by the UN, the international human rights standards system and human rights mechanisms have been continuously improved, and the global movement for the universalization of human rights has flourished, emerging as one of the most prominent areas of international rule of law and global governance in the postwar era.