Response to Robert A. Blair’s Review of <i>Committed to Rights: UN Human Rights Treaties and Legal Paths for Commitment and Compliance</i>

Comstock, Audrey L.

doi:10.1017/s1537592722000032

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…This research extends a line of work that argues behaviors besides ratification can illuminate important aspects of treaty participation and international politics (Comstock 2021;Simmons 2009). Investigating what compels states to withdraw reservations can help scholars and legal practitioners understand the domestic and international processes that lead states to strengthen 5 States with greater legal capacity and more comprehensive ratification processes may enter specific, limited reservations that can withstand scrutiny by peer states and human rights treaty bodies.…”

Section: Entering and Withdrawing Treaty Reservationssupporting

confidence: 63%

Social Pressure in the International Human Rights Regime: Why States Withdraw Treaty Reservations

Boyes,

Eldredge,

Shannon

et al. 2023

Brit. J. Polit. Sci.

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States often use reservations to modify their treaty obligations. Prior research demonstrates why states enter reservations and why states object to reservations, but little work explains why states withdraw them. We argue that states withdraw reservations in response to international social pressure. Using novel data on reservations and reservation withdrawals for the nine core international human rights treaties, our analyses reveal two factors that compel states to withdraw reservations: (1) pressure from peer states and (2) pressure from human rights treaty bodies conducting periodic reviews. While previous work emphasizes domestic factors, our research shows that the international community encourages states to withdraw reservations and strengthen their commitments to human rights and international law.

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Section: Entering and Withdrawing Treaty Reservationssupporting

confidence: 63%

Social Pressure in the International Human Rights Regime: Why States Withdraw Treaty Reservations

Boyes,

Eldredge,

Shannon

et al. 2023

Brit. J. Polit. Sci.

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“…Under the self-reporting procedure, which is mandatory for all states parties, committees evaluate state reports and shadow reports submitted by NGOs in order to issue 'concluding observations and recommendations' (Creamer and Simmons 2020: 16-17). Although it is not legally binding, there is growing evidence that self-reporting to treaty bodies improves compliance Simmons 2019, 2020;Comstock 2021). Individual and interstate complaint mechanisms are subject to opt-in or opt-out by states parties at the time of treaty ratification.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informal human rights law-making: How treaty bodies use ‘General Comments’ to develop international law

Lesch

Reiners²

2023

Glob. Con.

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The United Nations treaty bodies were established to monitor the implementation of human rights by states parties. Through ‘General Comments’ – legally non-binding clarifications of treaty obligations – they have also influenced the development of international human rights law – for example, on the right to life and climate impacts. We address this phenomenon by establishing a twofold argument. First, we argue that General Comments are used by the committees to informally shape international law. They deliberately act as human rights law-makers, knowing that international institutions, organizations and professionals in their network will subsequently refer to such instruments. Second, we argue that treaty bodies not only rely on their network once they have adopted their outcome, but the experts’ personal networks also shape the drafting process of General Comments. We develop and illustrate an analytical framework with two case studies of General Comments on the human right to water and the torture prohibition. The analysis demonstrates the need for external knowledge of both technical and legal aspects of the norms being interpreted. By addressing pressing human rights challenges, expert committees can shape the law in times of stagnation and resist contestation even from powerful states.

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Response to Robert A. Blair’s Review of Committed to Rights: UN Human Rights Treaties and Legal Paths for Commitment and Compliance

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Social Pressure in the International Human Rights Regime: Why States Withdraw Treaty Reservations

Social Pressure in the International Human Rights Regime: Why States Withdraw Treaty Reservations

Informal human rights law-making: How treaty bodies use ‘General Comments’ to develop international law

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