1. Introduction; 2. Why international law? The development of the international human rights regime in the twentieth century; 3. Theories of commitment; 4. Theories of compliance; 5. Civil rights; 6. Equality for women: education, work, and reproductive rights; 7. Humane treatment: the prevalence and prevention of torture; 8. The protection of innocents: rights of the child; 9. Conclusions.
This book demonstrates that the ratification of treaties generally leads to better human rights practices on average.
Beth Simmons is Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University and has also taught at Duke University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Harvard. Her book, Who Adjusts? Domestic Sources of Foreign Economic Policy During the Interwar Years, 1924-1939, was recognized by the American Political Science Association in 1995 as the best book published in 1994 in government, politics, or international relations. Her article, "International Law and State Behavior: Commitment and Compliance in International Monetary Affairs," won the Heniz Eulau Award for the best article published in the American Political Science Review in 2000. Her research also regularly appears in such journals as International Organization, World Politics, the Journal of Legal Studies, and the Journal of Conflict Resolution.
'Mobilizing for Human Rights is a magisterial work of scholarship.
It substantially advances our understanding of human rights law in
domestic and international politics. Due to its exceptional rigor,
this book will help settle some of the most highly contested
debates, and will surely spark new ones. It constitutes an
outstanding achievement for interdisciplinary studies.' Ryan
Goodman, New York University School of Law
'Mobilizing for Human Rights brilliantly combines theory and
systematic empirical analysis to demonstrate how international
human rights law affects state policies by altering the domestic
political environment. Beth Simmons has written what will become a
classic work integrating the study of international relations with
that of domestic politics.' Robert O. Keohane, Woodrow Wilson
School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton
University
'This is a very powerful study of the impact of international law
and the evolution of an international human rights regime. As
Simmons notes, the development of such a regime has been a major
change in world politics since World War II. Her book provides one
of the most well articulated theories of why the human rights
regime has evolved as an international treaty system. And it
presents one of the most in depth empirical studies of the major
elements of that regime. It advances the novel argument that
governments sign and comply with human rights treaties because they
mobilize domestic groups to demand such behavior. This book will
make a major contribution to our study of world politics by showing
that international law can matter and that the recognition of human
rights can change the behavior of governments.' Helen V. Milner,
Princeton University
'Simmons has written simply the most important new work by a social
scientist on international law and human rights. This rigorous,
persuasive, and theoretically eclectic book should be required
reading for any scholar or graduate student interested in the
topic.' Kathryn Sikkink, University of Minnesota
'This is one of the most important books on international human
rights in decades. For more than thirty years, researchers have
tried unsuccessfully to use regression analysis to show that human
rights treaties make a difference. In this book, Harvard Professor
Beth Simmons cracks the code, developing a well-grounded theory of
political contexts in which signing a human rights treaty should
yield improved human rights on the ground, and then offering
rigorous statistical tests that confirm the theory. This book is a
must read for anyone who wants to understand when and how human
rights law works.' Professor Richard H. Steinberg, UCLA School of
Law
'This book marshals theoretical arguments and empirical evidence to
show that, under certain conditions, a state's public law-like
commitment in the form of agreeing to an international human rights
treaty has a noticeable positive impact on domestic human rights
outcomes.' International Affairs
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