What is the most demanding level of state obligation regarding human rights?

The most demanding level of state obligation regarding human rights is to ensure. This concept encompasses the comprehensive responsibility of the state to actively uphold and facilitate the rights of individuals within its jurisdiction. Ensuring human rights means that the state must not only refrain from violating these rights but also take proactive measures to guarantee effective implementation and enforcement.

This obligation involves creating appropriate legal frameworks, establishing institutions to protect human rights, and providing mechanisms for accountability when rights are violated. It requires the state to ensure that individuals have access to remedies and to protect vulnerable populations from abuses. The duty to ensure human rights is the highest level of obligation because it necessitates that the state takes a series of affirmative actions to safeguard and uphold individual rights consistently.

In contrast, the obligations to protect and promote human rights, while also important, involve different levels of engagement. Protecting rights involves safeguarding individuals against violations typically committed by third parties, while promoting rights relates to raising awareness and understanding of human rights principles without the same direct responsibility for enforcement. Ignoring human rights entirely represents a failure to meet any obligations, thus reinforcing that the commitment to ensure rights is indeed the most demanding.