Do Human Rights Treaties Make a Difference?

Do countries comply with the requirements of human rights treaties that they join? Are these treaties effective in changing states' behavior for the better? This article addresses these questions through a large-scale quantitative analysis of the relationship between human rights treaties and c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Yale law journal 2002-06, Vol.111 (8), p.1935-2042
Main Author: Hathaway, Oona A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Attorneys
Civil liberties
Compliance
Countries
Democracy
Freedom
Genocide
Human rights
Institutionalism
International human rights
International law
International relations
Law
Liberalism
Litigation
Manycountries
Noncompliance
Political representation
Qualitative research
Quantitative analysis
Ratification
Realism
Statistical significance
Torture
Treaties
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Do countries comply with the requirements of human rights treaties that they join? Are these treaties effective in changing states' behavior for the better? This article addresses these questions through a large-scale quantitative analysis of the relationship between human rights treaties and countries' human rights practices. The analysis finds that although the practices of countries that have ratified human rights treaties are generally better than those of countries that have not, noncompliance with treaty obligations appears common. More paradoxically, controlling for other factors that affect practices, it appears that treaty ratification is not infrequently associated with worse practices than otherwise expected. These findings can be explained in part by the dual nature of treaties as both instrumental and expressive instruments. The article concludes by considering better ways to help ensure that human rights treaties improve the lives of those they are meant to help.
ISSN:0044-0094
1939-8611
DOI:10.2307/797642