What is an international convention?
An international convention or treaty is an agreement between different countries that is legally binding to the contracting States. Existing international conventions cover different areas, including trade, science, crime, disarmament, transport, and human rights. A convention becomes legally binding to a particular State when that State ratifies it. Signing does not make a convention binding, but it indicates support for the principles of the convention and the country’s intention to ratify it. As contracting States are legally bound to adhere to the principles included in the convention, a monitoring body is often set up to assess State parties’ progress in implementing the convention by considering reports periodically submitted by States. Human rights conventions do not contain any enforcement mechanism to compel States to comply with the principles of the convention or with the recommendations of the monitoring body, and the implementation of these conventions depends on the comm
