Does “shaming” by international human rights organizations (HROs) lead to improvements in human rights conditions within a state? If so, under what conditions does this form of criticism influence behavior? The idea of shaming is crucial to multiple theories of human rights improvement, with many studies indicating that these human rights organizations are a critical link to improvement in rights practices. Yet, until now, we haven’t had enough empirical evidence to prove whether it actually works.
Using a new data set of more than 400 HRO activities aimed at governments, together with new data on the domestic presence of rights organizations and the targeting of governments by outside advocacy forces, we found that public criticism by HROs does indeed influence state human rights practices—but only under the right conditions.
The role of human rights organizations, put simply, is to place issues on the international community’s agenda, to assist domestic advocacy groups in their own struggle against repression, and to push other states and intergovernmental organizations to join in advocacy attempts. Through this process, repressive regimes are pressured or socialized into improving their human rights practices.
