Regional Courts, Domestic Politics, and the Struggle for Human Rights

International institutional design and human rights: The case of the Inter-American Human Rights System

“…For example, domestic judicial effectiveness plays a major role in commitment to and compliance with international human rights agreements because the domestic judiciary represents the primary means of enforcement for international agreements (Alter, 1996;Conrad and Ritter, 2013;Powell and Staton, 2009;Simmons, 2009). Domestic politics are also important for compliance with regional human rights courts, including the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Haglund, 2020;Hillebrecht, 2014). Domestic pro-rights political movements are important for the effectiveness of international treaties as well (Simmons, 2009).…”

“…Although scholars have assessed the influence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on state behavior (e.g. Haglund, 2020; Hawkins and Jacoby, 2010; Hillebrecht, 2014; Huneeus, 2011), to date, little work has examined the influence of the Inter-American Commission on state human rights behavior. Some debate has emerged about whether the Commission as a relatively weak quasi-judicial human rights body in the region has an impact on state behavior (Kletzel, 2018).…”

“…Finally, current work focuses either on compliance with specific orders of regional human rights courts (e.g. Hawkins and Jacoby, 2010; Hillebrecht, 2014; Huneeus, 2011) or on the preventive role of the Inter-American Court, including the extent to which the Court deters future human rights abuses (Haglund, 2020; Lessard, 2018). Other relevant work on regional human rights systems focuses on the influence of the European Court of Human Rights on state behavior (Anagnostou and Munguiiu-Pippidi, 2014; Helfer and Voeten, 2014).…”