Do International Human Rights Treaties Improve Respect for Human Rights?

• Published in: The Journal of conflict resolution Vol. 49; no. 6; pp. 925 - 953
• Main Author: Neumayer, Eric
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications 01.12.2005; SAGE Publications; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Civil rights; Civil Society; Compliance; Cooperation; Democracy; Democratic theory; Developed Nations; Enforcement; Foreign policy; Game theory; Gross domestic product; Human Rights; Human rights violations; Institutionalism; Institutionalized Persons; International; International agreements; International Cooperation; International human rights; International relations; Law enforcement; NGOs; Non-governmental organizations; Nongovernmental organizations; Pareto optimum; Political Development; Political Systems; Realism; Research Design; Sanctions; Sensitivity analysis; Social interaction; Studies; Torture; Treaties; Validity; Violations; civil society; ratification; democracy; human rights
• ISSN: 0022-0027; 1552-8766
• DOI: 10.1177/0022002705281667

After the nonbinding Universal Declaration of Human Rights, many global and regional human rights treaties have been concluded. Critics argue that these are unlikely to have made any actual difference in reality. Others contend that international regimes can improve respect for human rights in state parties, particularly in more democratic countries or countries with a strong civil society devoted to human rights and with transnational links. The findings suggest that rarely does treaty ratification have unconditional effects on human rights. Instead, improvement in human rights is typically more likely the more democratic the country or the more international nongovernmental organizations its citizens participate in. Conversely, in very autocratic regimes with weak civil society, ratification can be expected to have no effect and is sometimes even associated with more rights violation.