The Socialist Federation Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was bound by human rights obligations contained in general international law and in human rights conventions. It was party to the 1966 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the 1966 Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Genocide Convention, the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It has signed Optional Protocol I to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The FRY is still listed as party to these conventions. After the UN organs determined that Yugoslavia was not to be regarded as the automatic successor of the rights of the SFRY but would have to apply anew for membership in the UN, the FRY refused to participate in the work of the human rights treaty bodies. In a letter the chairman of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination stated that the Committee has always considered the FRY duty bound as a state party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

In regard to domestic standards, the 1992 FRY Constitution provides that the FRY is a democratic state founded on the rule of law. The Constitution includes 49 articles guaranteeing basic political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights and freedom for all citizens without discrimination.