INTERNATIONAL human rights law represents humanity’s most ambitious endeavour to subject power to the discipline of principle. Its foundational insight is that human dignity cannot remain contingent upon governmental discretion. Rights acquire meaning not merely through treaties, but through institutions capable of interpreting, enforcing and vindicating them when domestic systems fail. Regional human rights courts embody one of the most consequential achievements of this evolution. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACtHPR) have transformed human rights from moral aspirations into adjudicable obligations. They have created judicial spaces where individuals can challenge state conduct beyond domestic politics, affirming a defining principle of modern international law: sovereignty is a source of responsibility, not a refuge from scrutiny.

These institutions are imperfect, facing political resistance, uneven compliance and disputes over judicial authority. Yet they ensure that human rights violations do not disappear behind sovereign power by providing remedies, developing jurisprudence and transforming rights into enforceable legal obligations. Asia remains the great anomaly. Despite comprising nearly 60 percent of humanity, it lacks a comprehensive regional human rights court. Explanations based on........

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