Beth A. Simmons

The project for this author is to empirically test the thesis that ratification of human rights treaties results in positive benefits. She is successful to the extent that she can reject claims by others that international human rights law is ineffective and sometimes detrimental. For the most part, though, the positive outcomes from ratifying any given treaty tends to be small, even very small.

Her generalized conclusion is that while treaties are largely irrelevant to strong democracies and strong autocracies, they prove most effective in transitional governments. In those situations of political change locals can seize the opportunity to use the treaty language (and the NGOs that usually follow thereupon) to press effectively for changes that mirror the treaty goals.

This is all good and well, although one must wonder whether, since treaties prove minimally effective and then only in limited political circumstances, it is worth the costs involved to draft and implement these documents. Having identified where the opportunities for beneficial change exist, could we not now target those openings without all the formality of a UN treaty?… (meer)