At present, both the international and the regional levels of human rights protection lack an express definition of the positive obligation of states to protect human rights. Similarly, the doctrine lacks a unified opinion regarding this concept. For quite a long time, human rights were considered as such that give rise to so-called negative obligations of states to refrain from human rights violations. However, with the development of international human rights law, it is increasingly recognised that human rights also give rise to positive obligations of the state to take active measures to ensure these rights. Such obligations usually derive from international human rights treaties or from the interpretation of international judicial bodies that monitor the implementation of corresponding international treaties. Therefore, it is crucial for the doctrine and practice of international law in the field of human rights protection to analyse the positive obligations of the state, which are consolidated in international treaties and the practice of international judicial bodies. The purpose of this study is to analyse human rights and positive obligations of the state in the context of regional mechanisms for the protection of human rights. Among the general scientific methods, the study used the analysis and synthesis, as well as deduction, induction, prediction, modeling, analogy and other general scientific methods. A thorough study of the positive obligations of the state would be impossible even without the use of special methods of study and cognition, which include comparative legal, historical and legal, technical, and structural-functional methods. In particular, one of the leading research methods was the comparative legal method, which was used to study the practice of regional mechanisms for the protection of human rights. The study provides an overview of the modern interpretation of positive obligations of states. Specifically, this study focuses on the practice of the European, Inter-American and African Human Rights Courts in the context of applying the state's positive obligations