Realist international relations scholars have long wondered about the ability of international law to generate real change. Now, committed human rights sympathizers are also asking tough questions, spurred on by persistent gaps between rhetorical success and empirical reality. As one historian of human rights recently mused, “What if claims made in the name of universal rights are not the best way to protect people?” Such questions may be anathema to the activists and scholars promoting human rights, but the global ascendancy (...) of the rights idiom demands scrutiny of the empirical record. This paper reviews recent and prominent scholarship and suggests that the choice of research method often impacts researchers' conclusions about the real-world impact of transnational human rights activism. (shrink)

What influences the Northern media’s coverage of events and abuses in explicit human rights terms? Do international NGOs have an impact, and, if so, when are they most effective? This article addresses these questions with a regression analysis of human rights reporting by The Economist and Newsweek from 1986 to 2000, covering 145 countries. First, it finds that these two media sources cover abuses in human rights terms more frequently when they occur in countries with higher levels of state repression, (...) economic development, population, and Amnesty International attention. There is also some evidence that political openness, the number of battle deaths, and civil societies affect coverage, although these effects were not robust. Second, it finds that Amnesty International’s press releases appear to have less impact on media coverage when dis- cussing abuses in countries that are central to the media’s zone of concern. Indeed, Amnesty’s press advocacy may be more effective when addressing violations in lesser-noticed countries. The article attributes this to the saturation of coverage of abuses in highly mediatized countries. Cumulative attention by multiple journalists and others raises a country’s media profile but also makes it more difficult for any one voice to be heard. The authors conclude that Amnesty’s press advocacy may have greater media impact when focused- ing on abuses in countries located away from the media’s core areas of concern. Overall, the authors are encouraged by the Northern media’s sensitivity to actual patterns of repression and Amnesty’s lobbying, since both indicate that the media is potentially a useful ally in efforts to combat abuses worldwide. Yet, the discouraging effects of poverty on the media’s human rights coverage are cause for concern. (shrink)

During 1991-92, Israel's security agencies instituted changes in their techniques for interrogating Palestinian detainees. Rather than using brute force that was not centrally overseen, they began to use painful measures that did not leave scars, that were more tightly controlled by higher officials, and that they portrayed in public as humane. Israeli agencies did not apply these changes to interrogations in southern Lebanon, however. In Palestine, but not in Lebanon, the targeted population actively used world media to publicize allegations of (...) mistreatment and notified international agencies and human rights groups of their plight. The Israeli changes illustrate that global forces are pushing at least some states to alter their sanctioned violence practices toward a worldwide norm of legitimacy that emphasizes professionalism, rationalization, and bureaucratization. Sociological field theory can explain much of this behavior but requires some modification to account for variations such as those described here. (shrink)

Why do some countries get so much more international attention for their human rights abuses than others? Our analysis of human rights-related reports in two major English language magazines - Newsweek and the Economist - and by Amnesty International's research department during 1980 to 2000 suggests the severity of a given country's abusive behavior is less important than the country's policy relevance to powerful Western countries, the ability of foreign and local journalists to investigate freely, and attention from international and (...) domestic rights activists. (shrink)

Local human rights organizations (LHROs) are key domestic and transnational actors, modifying, diffusing, and promoting liberal norms; mobilizing citizens; networking with the media and activists; and pressuring governments to implement international commitments. These groups, however, are reliant on international funds. This makes sense in politically repressive environments, where potential donors fear government retaliation, but is puzzling elsewhere. We interviewed 263 LHRO leaders and key informants from 60 countries, and conducted statistically representative surveys of 6180 respondents in India, Mexico, Morocco, and (...) Nigeria. Based on these data, we believe LHRO funding in non-repressive environments is shaped by philanthropic logics of appropriateness. In the late 1990s, transnational activists successfully mainstreamed human rights throughout the international donor assistance community, freeing up development money for LHROs. Domestic activists in the global South have not promoted similar philanthropic transformations at home, where charitable giving still focuses on traditional institutions. Instead, domestic rights activists have followed the path of least resistance toward international aid, a logic of outcomes produced by variations in global logics of (philanthropic) appropriateness. (shrink)

What shapes the transnational activist agenda? Do non-governmental organizations with a global mandate focus on the world’s most pressing problems, or is their reporting also affected by additional considerations? To address these questions, we study the determinants of country reporting by an exemplary transnational actor, Amnesty International, during 1986–2000. We find that while human rights conditions are associated with the volume of their country reporting, other factors also matter, including previous reporting efforts, state power, U.S. military assistance, and a country’s (...) media profile. Drawing on interviews with Amnesty and Human Rights Watch staff, we interpret our findings as evidence of Amnesty International’s social movement-style ‘‘information politics.’’ The group produces more written work about some countries than others to maximize advocacy opportunities, shape international standards, promote greater awareness, and raise its profile. This approach has both strengths and weaknesses, which we consider after extending our analysis to other transnational sectors. (shrink)

Oil contributed to civil war in the Republic of Congo, but this conflict would never have arisen in the first place had democratization not generated substantial political instability. Once the fighting began, moreover, petroleum's overall effect was ambiguous. Oil tempted elites to fight, but the oil fields' remote location also limited most combat to the capital city. Later, oil money helped underwrite a 1999 peace settlement. Despite polarization among Congo's three main ethnoregional groups, the country did not fracture into ethnic, (...) secessionist, or warlord zones. Thus, Congo qualifies prevailing theories linking natural primary commodities and civil war. (shrink)

This article introduces the Human Rights Perception Polls - surveys of publics in multiple countries - and describes statistical associations between measures of socio-economic status - income, education, internet use, and urban residence - and exposure to the term, "human rights," as well as personal contact with self identified "human rights workers." We look at our national survey data from Colombia and Mexico, and regional survey data from India (Mumbai and its rural environs) and Morocco (Rabat, Casablanca, and their rural (...) environs). (shrink)

DAVID CROW and JAMES RON look at how global publics view the relationship between human rights organizations and the U.S. government. They argue that ordinary people across various world regions do not perceive human rights groups as “handmaidens” of U.S. foreign policy.

This article outlines a human rights framework for analyzing violent internal conflict, “translating” social-scientific findings on conflict risk factors into human rights language. It is argued that discrimination and violations of social and economic rights function as underlying causes of conflict, creating the deep grievances and group identities that may, under some circumstances, motivate collective violence. Violations of civil and political rights, by contrast, are more clearly identifiable as direct conflict triggers. Abuse of personal integrity rights is associated with escalation, (...) and intermediately repressive regimes appear to be most at risk. Denial of political participation rights is associated with internal conflict because full democracies experience less conflict. Yet democratization itself is dangerous, since regime transition is also a major conflict risk factor. (shrink)

This special issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution contains six articles discussing the link between primary commodities, political instability, and civil war, as well as a response essay by Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler. The latter is especially welcome given that all our contributors wrestle, in one way or another, with the implications of Collier and Hoeffler's early claim for a correlation between a country’s propensity to experience civil war and its dependence on the export of primary commodities. Although (...) the robustness of this statistical finding is increasingly being questioned, we are in its debt for helping to initiate a barrage of elaborations, criticisms, and extensions. Cumulatively, these have helped reinvigorate debates over the sources of political violence, spurring the creation of new paradigms for studying civil war and its associated resource curse. (shrink)

Media attention is unevenly allocated across global human rights problems, prompting anger, frustration, and recrimination in the international system. This article demonstrates that from 1981 to 2000, three leading Anglo-American media sources disproportionately covered Latin American abuses, in human rights terms, as compared to other world regions. This ‘‘Latin Human Rights Bias’’ runs counter to broader trends within the Anglo-American general coverage of foreign news, where Latin America’s share of reporting is far smaller. The Bias is partially explained by the (...) region’s proximity to the United States (US), its relevance to US policy debates, and by path dependency. A significant portion of the Latin Bias remains unexplained, however, despite our best attempts to rigorously model explanations offered by leading Western journalists. These findings suggest that geographic regions are an important factor in the media’s perception of global human rights problems and that both human rights policymakers and scholars may be inappropriately drawing general lessons from regionally specific and biased patterns. We conclude with suggestions for future research. (shrink)

At the core of policy debates on the state-level effects of transitional justice is a series of competing claims about the causal effects of various transitional justice mechanisms. A review of recent scholarship on transitional justice shows that empirical evidence of positive or negative effects is still insufficient to support strong claims. More systematic and comparative analysis of the transitional justice record is needed to move from ‘faith-based’ to ‘fact-based’ discussions of transitional justice impacts.

The rights-based approach to development has swept through the global development assistance sector during the last fifteen years. As a result, bilateral development donors, international organizations, and development-oriented non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly committed, in theory, to implementing human rights. This commitment has dramatically accelerated the discursive and organizational merger of the global human rights and development policy communities. What impact, if any, has the rights-based approach had on the structure, resources, and work styles of development NGOs? This article offers (...) five empirically grounded hypotheses to guide future research. (shrink)

This article develops a political economy approach to the study of international NGOs. We argue that many aspects of these organizations can be explained through a materialist analysis. We advance two theoretical propositions. First, the growing number of international NGOs has increased uncertainty, competition, and insecurity for all actors in a given NGO sector, disputing the claim that NGO proliferation is invariably positive. Second, we suggest that the "marketization" of many NGO activities, including competitive tenders and renewable contracts, may generate (...) perverse incentives that can lead to dysfunctional outcomes. We test these claims on three cases of NGO behavior, including humanitarian aid for refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo, civilian protection during the Bosnian war, and technical assistance in Kyrgyzstan. (shrink)

This article explains tactical escalation by a Peruvian left-wing group during the 1980s and 1990s as an interaction effect between organizational ideology and the broader political and organizational environment. In 1980, Peru’s Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) organization ended a decade of political organizing and launched armed struggle against a new civilian government. Peru had been governed since 1968 by military officers, but popular pressure, including strong left-wing protests, had forced the military to cede control. In responding to democratization with revolution (...) rather than electoral participation, Sendero broke with the rest of Peru’s Marxist left. In 1983, Sendero again escalated its tactics, initiating a campaign of violent intimidation against Peru’s legal left. By 1996, according to data assembled for this study, the group had selectively assassinated some 300 prominent Peruvian leftists. For theorists of revolutions and social movements, Sendero’s tactical trajectory poses two important puzzles. First, many revolutionary theorists believe that transitions from authoritarianism to elections decrease armed insurgency. Why, then, did Peru’s democratization provoke Sendero’s escalation? Second, Sendero might well have been expected to cooperate with other left-wing groups, rather than to attack them so brutally. Why did Sendero choose an alternative path? The group’s anti-left measures are all the more puzzling given the opposition they provoked among potential allies at home and abroad. This article explains Sendero’s choices by drawing on political opportunity theory, theories of organizational competition, and the concept of declining protest cycles. Democratization can promote greater levels of strife if small but violence-prone groups fear marginalization in electoral politics. A dense left-wing social movement sector, moreover, can stimulate internecine competitive fighting if only some of the movement’s members accept the legitimacy of national elections. (shrink)

Local human rights organizations (LHROs) are crucial allies in international efforts to promote human rights. Without support from organized civil society, efforts by transnational human rights reformers would have little effect. Despite their importance, we have little systematic information on the correlates of public trust in LHROs. To fill this gap, we conducted key informant interviews with 233 human rights workers from sixty countries, and then administered a new Human Rights Perceptions Poll to representative public samples in Mexico (n = (...) 2,400), Morocco (n = 1,100), India (n = 1,680), and Colombia (n = 1,699). Our data reveal that popular trust in local rights groups is consistently associated with greater respondent familiarity with the rights discourse, actors, and organizations, along with greater skepticism toward state institutions and agents. The evidence fails to provide consistent, strong support for other commonly held expectations, however, including those about the effects of foreign funding, socioeconomic status, and transnational connections. (shrink)

Although epidemiology is increasingly contributing to policy debates on issues of conflict and human rights, its potential is still underutilized. As a result, this article calls for greater collaboration between public health researchers, conflict analysts, and human rights monitors, with special emphasis on retrospective, population-based surveys. The article surveys relevant recent public health research, explains why collaboration is useful, and outlines possible future research scenarios, including those about the indirect and long-term consequences of conflict; human rights and security in conflict-prone (...) areas; and the link between human rights, conflict, and International Humanitarian Law. (shrink)

Local human rights organizations (LHROs) in the global South are increasingly keen to raise funds from cocitizens and local businesses to diversify their funding, to increase their political legitimacy, and to bolster their resilience to fluctuations in international donor trends. This concern with local funds has assumed new urgency today following the global governmental crackdown on foreign aid to domestic civil society. This article focuses on the potential for local human rights fundraising in Mumbai, one of India’s most important economic (...) centers, as well as a hub of social movements and human rights organizing. Like other governments, India has launched a crackdown on foreign aid to local NGOs. Interviews with a representative sample of Mumbai’s LHRO leaders indicate that they depend on foreign aid, worry about government regulation, and are keen to raise funds from the city’s booming corporate sector. Our representative survey of 1,680 adults living in Mumbai and its rural environs, however, shows that LHRO fundraising among Mumbai businesses could pose an acute reputational challenge. While Indian human rights groups do enjoy some public support in Mumbai, the public’s trust in these groups is statistically associated with greater mistrust in local businesses. LHRO leaders in Mumbai face a critical dilemma: The city’s booming corporate sector presents a tempting fundraising target but any attempt to access these funds risks undermining the local rights sector’s reserves of public support. (shrink)

To counter restrictions on NGO activity, local groups need to reduce their dependence on international financial support.

In 1988, Israeli security forces engaged in a wide variety of repressive tactics aimed at putting down the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Rather than viewing these methods solely as products of instructions handed down from on high, this article regards Israeli tactics as emerging from processes of innovation and elaboration by military personnel. Rules stipulating the legal use of lethal force placed important limits on Israeli military behavior. Within those limits, however, soldiers were free to (...) invent new methods of repression. The article draws on 50 open-ended interviews with Israeli military veterans. (shrink)

Many resource-strapped developing country governments seek international aid, but when that assistance is channeled through domestic civil society, it can threaten their political control. As a result, in the last two decades, 39 of the world’s 153 low- and middle-income countries have adopted laws restricting the inflow of foreign aid to domestically operating nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Governments recognize that such laws harm their international reputations for supporting democracy and may invite donor punishment in terms of aid reductions. Yet, they perceive (...) foreign aid to NGOs as supporting political opponents and threatening their grip on power. In the aftermath of competitive electoral victories, governments often take new legal steps to limit these groups’ funding. We test this argument on an original dataset of laws detailing the regulation of foreign aid inflows to domestically operating NGOs in 153 low- and middle-income countries for the period 1993–2012. Using an event history approach, we find that foreign aid flows are associated with an increased risk of restrictive law adoption; a log unit increase in foreign aid raises the probability of adoption by 6.7%. This risk is exacerbated after the holding of competitive elections: the interaction of foreign aid and competitive elections increases the probability of adoption by 11%. (shrink)

How do public regulations shape the composition and behavior of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Because many NGOs advocate liberal causes, such as human rights, democracy, and gender equality, they upset the political status quo. At the same time, many NGOs operating in the Global South rely on international funding. This sometimes disconnects from local publics and leads to the proliferation of sham or ‘briefcase’ NGOs. Seeking to rein in the politically inconvenient NGO sector, governments exploit the role of international funding and (...) make the case for restricting the influence of NGOs that serve as foreign agents. To pursue this objective, states worldwide are enacting laws to restrict NGOs’ access to foreign funding. We examine this regulatory offensive through an Ethiopian case study, where recent legislation prohibits foreign-funded NGOs from working on politically sensitive issues. We find that most briefcase NGOs and local human rights groups in Ethiopia have disappeared, while survivors have either ‘rebranded’ or switched their work from proscribed areas. This research note highlights how governments can and do shape the population ecology of the non-governmental sector. Because NGOs seek legitimacy via their claims of grassroots support, a reliance on external funding makes them politically vulnerable. Any study of the NGO sector must include governments as the key component of NGOs’ institutional environment. (shrink)

Boundary-related inequalities are perhaps starkest during war, where one’s location vis-a-vis a boundary can mean the difference between life and death. Drawing on field interviews in the former Yugoslavia, I explore the impact of the newly created Bosnia/Yugoslavia border on the lives of Muslim Slavs during the first year of the Bosnian War. On what became the Bosnian side of the border, Yugoslav authorities helped ethnic Serb paramilitaries launch a wave of ethnic cleansing, forcing tens of thousands of Muslims from (...) their homes. Miles away in the Sandzak, however, a partially Muslim area on the Yugoslav side of the boundary, those same authorities blocked forced displacement of Muslims, prompting Serbian paramilitaries to engage instead in ethnic harassment, a perverse but less lethal phenomenon involving nationalist threats, attacks on property, and occasional murders or kidnappings. Although Sandzak’s 200,000 Muslims feared the Serbian paramilitaries living in their midst, the irregular fighters, many of whom were active in the nearby Bosnian fighting, did not launch systematic attacks inside Yugoslavia. Sandzak’s Muslims, in other words, were spared the destruction visited upon their Bosnian co-nationals, many of whom lived only miles away. For Sandzak’s Muslims, the new Bosnia/Yugoslavia territorial marker was enormously significant. Ironically, Muslims along the Bosnia/Yugoslav divide were safer if they were inside rather than immediately outside Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia. (shrink)

James Ron uses controversial comparisons between Serbia and Israel to present a novel theory of state violence. Formerly a research consultant to Human Rights Watch and the International Red Cross, Ron witnessed remarkably different patterns of state coercion. Frontiers and Ghettos presents an institutional approach to state violence, drawing on Ron's field research in the Middle East, Balkans, Chechnya, Turkey, and Africa, as well as dozens of rare interviews with military veterans, officials, and political activists on all sides. Studying violence (...) from the ground up, the book develops an exciting new framework for analyzing today's nationalist wars. (shrink)

Human rights organizations have grown exponentially across the globe, particularly in the global South, and the term human rights is now common parlance among politicians and civil society activists. While debates about human rights are waged in elite circles, what do publics in the global South think about human rights ideas and the organizations that promote them? -/- Drawing on large-scale public opinion surveys and interviews with human rights practitioners in India, Mexico, Morocco, and Nigeria, Taking Root finds that most (...) people are in fact broadly supportive of human rights discourse, trust local human rights groups, and do not view human rights as a tool of foreign powers. However, this general public support isn't grounded in strong commitments of public engagement, money, or local ties to the human rights sector. Publics in the global South do donate to charitable causes and organizations but rarely give to local rights groups, and these organizations must instead seek aid from foreign sources. -/- As the most informative and comprehensive account of public perceptions of human rights available across several regions of the world, Taking Root challenges a number of accepted truths held by human rights supporters and skeptics alike. (shrink)