Power,Mechanisms,and Denunciations: Understanding Compliance with Human Rights in International Relations

Abstract

The four volumes on human rights norms reviewed here investigate a puzzle introduced by quantitative studies, which shows that the expansion of commitments with human rights does not guarantee compliance with these rights in practice. Going beyond the classical opposition between constructivism and rationalism, the volumes explore the conditions and mechanisms that are likely to close this ‘compliance gap’. This essay starts by reviewing the arguments of the books before focusing on two major themes: compliance mechanisms and international denunciations. It argues that the introduction of ‘reintegrative shaming’ and ‘stigma’ to compliance research may help refine current knowledge on normative change and resistance to change.

Betts A and Orchard P (eds) (2014) Implementation and World Politics: How International Norms Change Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Friman HR (2015) The Politics of Leverage in International Relations: Name, Shame, and Sanctions. Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hafner-Burton E (2013) Making Human Rights a Reality. Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Risse T, Ropp SC, and Sikkink K (eds) (2013) The Persistent Power of Human Rights: From Commitment to Compliance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Keywords

human rights international norms compliance mechanisms naming and shaming stigma

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adler-Nissen

(2014) Stigma Management in International Relations: Transgressive Identities, Norms, and Order in International Society. International Organization 68 (1): 143–176.

Banta

(2012) Analysing Discourse as a Causal Mechanism. European Journal of International Relations 19 (2): 379–402.

Betts

Orchard

(eds.) (2014) Implementation and World Politics: How International Norms Change Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bloomfield

(2016) Norm Antipreneurs and Theorising Resistance to Normative Change. Review of International Studies 42 (2): 310–333.

Braithwaite

(1989) Crime, Shame and Reintegration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brysk

(2009) Global Good Samaritans: Human Rights as Foreign Policy. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cardenas

(2010) Conflict and Compliance: State Responses to International Human Rights Pressure. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Elster

(1998) A Plea for Mechanism. In: Hedström

Swedberg

(eds) Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp.45–73.

Finnemore

Sikkink

(1998) International Norm Dynamics and Political Change. International Organization 52 (4): 887–917.

10.

Franklin

(2008) Shame on You: The Impact of Human Rights Criticism on Political Repression in Latin America. International Studies Quarterly 52 (1): 187–211.

11.

Friman

(2015) The Politics of Leverage in International Relations: Name, Shame, and Sanctions. Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

12.

Goffman

(1963) Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

13.

Hafner-Burton

(2008) Sticks and Stones: Naming and Shaming and the Human Rights Enforcement Problem. International Organization 62 (4): 689–716.

14.

Hafner-Burton

(2013) Making Human Rights a Reality. Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press.

15.

Hafner-Burton

Tsutsui

(2007) Justice Lost! The Failure of International Human Rights Law To Matter Where Needed Most. Journal of Peace Research 44 (4): 407–425.

16.

Hathaway

(2002) Do Human Rights Treaties Make a Difference? The Yale Law Journal 111: 1935–2042.

17.

Hawkins

Jacoby

(2010) Partial Compliance: A Comparison of the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights. Journal of International Law and International Relations 6 (1): 35–85.

18.

Hurd

(1999) Legitimacy and Authority in International Politics. International Organization 53 (2): 379–408.

19.

Keck

Sikkink

(1998) Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

20.

Kessler Ferzan

(2011) Justification and Excuse. In: Deigh

Dolinko

(eds) The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Criminal Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.239–268.

21.

Klotz

(1995) Norms in International Relations: The Struggle Against Apartheid. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

22.

Lake

(2013) Authority, Coercion, and Power in International Relations. In: Finnemore

Goldstein

(eds) Back to Basics: State Power in a Contemporary World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.55–77.

23.

Lang

(2008) Evil, Agency, and Punishment. In: Jeffery

(ed.) Confronting Evil in International Relations: Ethical Responses to Problems of Moral Agency. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.89–114.

24.

Link

Phelan

(2001) Conceptualizing Stigma. Annual Review of Sociology 27: 363–385.

25.

McKeown

(2009) Norm Regress: US Revisionism and the Slow Death of the Torture Norm. International Relations 23 (1): 5–25.

26.

March

Olsen

(1998) The Institutional Dynamics of International Politics Orders. International Organization 52 (4): 943–969.

27.

Mercer

(2014) Feeling Like a State: Social Emotion and Identity. International Theory 6 (3): 515–535.

28.

Muños

(2009) Transnational and Domestic Processes in the Definition of Human Rights Policies in Mexico. Human Rights Quarterly 31 (1): 35–58.

29.

Risse

(2000) ‘Let’s Argue!’: Communicative Action in World Politics. International Organization 54 (1): 1–39.

30.

Risse

Ropp

Sikkink

(eds) (1999) The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

31.

Risse

Ropp

Sikkink

(eds) (2013) The Persistent Power of Human Rights: From Commitment to Compliance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

32.

Schapper

(2010) Global Child Rights and Local Change: Evidence from Bangladesh. Journal of Human Security 6 (1): 3–21.

33.

Solomon

(2006) Norms and Human Rights in International Relations. Political Studies Review 4 (1): 36–47.

34.

Tang

(2009) Transnational Human Rights Networks. Political Studies Review 7 (2): 229–240.

35.

Welch Larson

Paul

Wohlforth

(2014) Status and World Order. In: Paul

Welch Larson

Wohlforth

(eds) Status in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.3–29.

36.

Wolff

Zimmermann

(2016) Between Banyans and Battle Scenes: Liberal Norms, Contestation, and the Limits of Critique. Review of International Studies 42 (3): 513–534.

37.

Zarakol

(2014) What Made the Modern World Hang Together: Socialisation or Stigmatisation? International Theory 6 (2): 311–332.