UNICEF is an international organization that focuses primarily on children. It already exists more than 60 years (it was founded in 1946) and in that time has helped millions of children around the world. Its divisions are working in many countries worldwide.
UNICEF is a neutral entity, not advocating on either side of the political spectrum – the priority is given to children and endangered areas. Thanks to the UN Assembly, it was appointed as a spokesperson for the international children’s rights. And from years UNICEF fulfills this mission:
• works to protect children\’s rights, aims to discuss children\’s rights on regional and international arenas,
• fights discrimination against children, protects them from violence and provides secure environment for their development,
• provides equal opportunities of education, particularly in West and Central Africa, cares for the development of the youngest and quality of education,
• promotes gender equality of girls and women in society,
• put strong emphasis on the fight against HIV and AIDS, makes the society conscious of this threat and prevents the spread of the epidemic,
• provides care of children in the first period after birth and mothers during pregnancy,
• draws attention to the problems of children from areas threatened by war, terrorism , poverty and violence,
• intervenes when there is violation of children’s rights,
• immediately intervenes in areas after the disaster by protecting children from its consequences.

For promoting the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the realization of basic needs and real help to children, UNICEF received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965.

Amnesty International is a global organization designed to care about human rights and support the victims of violations of those rights. It works on the ideals of helping the injured and defenseless against the law, deals with individual cases. It is independent, impartial and neutral in terms of views and political systems. It is also not financed with public money.
Amnesty International has nearly 50 years uphold all human rights. Without a doubt, it has greatly contributed to the elevation of this issue in a transnational and over political way and to make it an important part of a public debate. Bible of the organization is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
AI in the past has set itself the main objectives, still valid nowadays. These include:
• accomplishment of the release of prisoners of conscience, and give them a fair trial,
• opposition to the death penalty, torture and other cruel methods of treatment of prisoners,
• compliance with international standards – fight for justice, in the idea of which, people who are responsible for violating human rights bear the consequences themselves,
• fight for the respect of human rights in the global scope.
Today, the organization encompasses almost the entire world – 140 countries and territories. It comprises 2.2 million people for whom the highest value is human freedom. Responds to all violations of human rights. It is active in all the debates about human rights. Sends delegations to meetings of governments and international organizations. If it does not have access to the country, it bases on information from diplomats, refugees and the media.

The International Criminal Court was established to judge those accused of the most serious crimes that took place after 1 July 2002. It was founded on 17 July 1998. It is based in The Hague. The tribunal consists of 18 judges who are elected by secret voting by countries which are subject to the jurisdiction. Every country has the opportunity to make two nominations of judges. Nominees should have high moral values, the highest skills of judges, also, a very important issue is the experience in conducting criminal cases and recognized competence in international law. The organs of the Tribunal comprises such departments as: the Pre-Trial Division, the Trial Division, the Appeals Division, the Office of the Prosecutor and the Registry. This office deals exclusively with prosecution of individuals, and only for acts that were committed after the entry into force of the statute, or after its adoption by the country. The International Court deals with adjudication of such crimes as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression. As it can be noted, terrorism, which is undoubtedly a huge crime against humanity, is omitted. It happened on purpose, because at the time of the Rome conference, the countries taking part in it could not come to agreement on a definition of terrorism. Currently functioning International Court of Justice is a UN body predestined to settle disputes between states and not, as it had in his intention, to prosecute individuals for international crimes. In the procedure we will find a record of who has the right to address its issues to the Court. These are the countries that adopted the Rome Statute, the ICC prosecutor, as well as the UN Security Council. The UN Security Council has the right to block any inquiry and the possibility of extending this period an unlimited number of times. The maximum penalty that may be promulgated by the ICC is 30 years of imprisonment, and even life imprisonment.

We ought to know that the Court is complementary to national justice. It can judge a criminal only if for some reason he cannot be punished by the courts in his country. Complementarity is a guarantee of respect for the sovereignty of states that have adopted the Rome Statute. It is worth mentioning that the body has neither the army nor the police and there are no technical conditions to bring the accused before its face. It is entirely dependent on the goodwill of countries and governments.

The European Court of Human Rights is an international judicial body. It investigates cases on the basis of individual and group applications. However, by 1990 the applications to the Court could have only be sent by countries. Complaints must be signed, only in exceptional circumstances, the Court considers anonymous applications. The complaint should have detailed description of violated law. An appeal to the Court’s decision is possible only after all possibilities of justice in the country are tried. Time for sending an application passes after 6 months from the date of final decision which was made in the country.

Judges who form the backbone of the Court decide about the correctness of applications and further steps. Currently, there are 47 Judges of the Court appointed for six-year term who cannot opt out of this position. It is important that they do not represent the applicants, but make the decision on their own, in an independent way. They pronounce judgments against countries on behalf of which they were appointed. Depending on the tasks assigned, they are acting in different functions – they perform duties of a judge or prepare cases for consideration.
Their role is fully independent, contrary to the common view, the ECHR is not subject to the Council of Europe, and is fully independent.

The European Court of Human Rights is the guardian of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Under that name it has been functioning since 1998. Previously, the European Commission of Human Rights (from 1950) and Court of Human Rights (from 1959) worked in a similar way. The authority was established under the European Convention on Human Rights created by international agreement in 1950. Its Headquarter is in Strasbourg.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the first, international document that protects human rights. Work on it began in 1947, and was officially adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on the December 10, 1948. Without a doubt, its origin and its final shape was affected by the events of World War II and the enormity of Nazi crimes.
Another reason because of which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has become a priority for the United Nations, was the fact that established in 1945 the Charter of the United Nations only touches in general the subject of human rights. Therefore, work began on the Declaration, which was supposed to ever since defend the freedom and dignity of the citizens of the world. The work was supervised by Canadian John Peters, and a major role in promoting the instrument was played by Eleanor Roosevelt.
In the United States Declaration was adopted unanimously. The next step was to urge all Member States to accept the provisions of the Declaration, disseminate and explain them. Only 8 countries left the question unanswered: Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the communist countries – including Poland.
The biggest shortcoming of the Declaration was that it was established as a resolution, therefore, had no legal effect. It was not binding international law. Nowadays, the Declaration is also referred to as a customary law. In 1966, on the basis of this document, a number of international treaties were signed, accompanied by another in subsequent years.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights comprises 30 articles, speaking, among others about the equality of all people, their right to life, to have their own property, to have personal views and religion and to participate in public life and society.

Discrimination is almost always a bad thing and a secondary issue is, for what reason somebody is discriminated against. Although we are in the twenty-first century, and it seems unbelievable, we still can meet with discrimination against women.
To prevent this, in the past, a number of documents, both domestic and international defending equality were created. One of the most important is the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women”. It was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations as early as 18 December 1979 in New York. People’s Republic of Poland ratified it three years later – in 1982.
According to this convention, discrimination is defined as any distinction, exclusion or restriction based on sex, which is aimed at reducing or nullifying the recognition, regardless of their marital status, opportunities, or exercising on an equal terms with men, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the areas of civic life , political, social, economic, cultural and others.
The convention also imposes an obligation on countries ratifying it, of introducing by the legislative measures the principle of equality between men and women, if they have not already done so. Also, in the social and cultural sphere, Convention requires the promotion of new patterns of behavior, free from prejudices, discrimination and stereotyped roles of women and men.
The convention also indicates that it is necessary to have equality in the workplace, and thus equal pay for equal work regardless of sex, which, unfortunately, is only wishful thinking. In the countries that have ratified the Convention, in order for the Convention to not remain just a paper document that has been implemented in accordance with Article 17 of the Convention, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was founded, which should ensure the implementation of its provisions.
Interestingly, not all UN members have ratified the Convention. The country that haven’t done it yet is for example … the United States (signed the Convention but have not yet ratified it). In addition, the Convention is not ratified by Iran, Somalia, Sudan and the Vatican (which has not even signed it.) Although the elimination of discrimination is not an international agreement but a lengthy process happening in human mentality, it is good, that these documents are created helping fight for equal rights for women.

Xenophobia literally means “fear of strangers”. However, this term is used most often in relation to assaults on members of other ethnic groups – immigrants and refugees that found shelter in Western Europe. Xenophobia is associated with nationalism, it means hostility to other cultures. Xenophobia is emphasized in over-caution, fear, resentment and hatred for other nations.
The greatest manifestations of xenophobia and the resulting conflicts take place in territories which gather many ethnic groups. The reluctance is mainly due to ingrained stereotypes. Denying the existence of other nationalities is associated with the false belief that “others” want to take something from us: it can be a workplace or culture and tradition.
As the history showed, fanatical xenophobia can lead to dramatic effects – the extermination, genocide and resettlement, or segregation of minority groups. Xenophobia was one of the pillars of fascism. Manifestations of xenophobia can be seen, unfortunately, every day: the desecration of places of memory, discrimination, excessive suspiciousness, physical or verbal assault.
Therefore, it is extremely important to increase public awareness, build identity and diversity in countries with a high rate of xenophobia and the fight for tolerance of other nationalities.

Some time ago, skin color determined the social status of a man. People with darker skin could only be slaves serving “whites”. Such relationships were ended up long time ago (slavery was abolished in 1865), but part of the “white” society still feels resentment towards people with darker skin, demonstrating it with insults, aggression and even violence. Other “colored” nations, such as Asians and Arabs, are also often victims of racial discrimination.
Racism is a part of various ideologies. It is a belief that some races are better than others. It became an important part of Nazism, which in this way explained the need for liquidation of the “impure” races. Nowadays, racism continues to moderate. International law prohibits all racist practices, considering them as crimes against humanity. However, very often “colored” are faced with intolerance, because how else you can call a black boy thrown bananas at or calling the Chinese “Yellow”.
You can not underestimate any discrimination, even though they are much less radical, still constitute a real threat. They can quickly escalate into a much stronger, racist attacks, which often lead to deeper disputes, such as on religious, cultural, ethnic, etc. backgrounds. It is necessary to combat all manifestations of racism in the bud . It is also necessary to educate on issues of racial diversity. Many studies confirm that the aversion to other races, are often due to fear and ignorance about the nationality. It is valuable,  to get to know the culture and the “colored” themselves to become more tolerant.

Homophobia is a social attitude, which is characterized by hostile, hateful and full of prejudice behavior against the representatives of sexual minorities, with particular reference to homosexuals.
Initially, this term also expressed an anxiety disorder, which object would be people with different sexual orientation (phobos is Greek for “fear”). However, this interpretation today leaves in the shade. Homophobia is most often an open view. In some areas is considered as normative. Reveals not only the offensive behavior, but also manifests own, homophobic views, and in extreme cases, violence.
The causes of homophobia are unclear, but there are three  main factors distinguished:
• The first is ignorance. Research shows that most homophobes do not personally know any gay or lesbian, making knowledge of these types of people minimal and based on speculation, and often false stereotypes.
• To this phenomenon contributes, unfortunately, traditional, religious upbringing, which strongly condemns homosexual behavior.
• Further reasons are: the uncertainty of their own sexuality and latent own homosexuality. Paradoxically, often somebody with very strong homophobic views is the same person uncertain of his sexuality, or even suspecting himself of homosexuality. However, the environment and upbringing will not allow him to reveal it, so by cutting off from the outward environment of gays is trying to mask or hide his desires.
Although public opinion is divided as to homophobia, more often the term “homophobic” is pejorative, and the person so defined could be faced with the social ostracism.