UC San Diego

This dissertation analyzes how political actors mobilize in international legal institutions to shine a spotlight on the behavior of repressive governments. The international relations literature focuses on the role of states, international institutions, and non-governmental organizations, largely leaving individual victims of abuse aside as passive targets of government repression. By focusing on individual petitions of human rights abuse in the United Nations, I show that victims of human rights abuse are important actors in global politics. My research addresses three questions: (1) Why do some repressive governments voluntarily invite criticism of their poor human rights practices by allowing individual petitions? (2) Why do individual victims bring petitions to expose human rights abuses when doing so opens them up to retaliation by abusive governments? (3) How do petitions affect respect for human rights in these repressive societies? I argue non-governmental organizations (representing victims) and political activists file international human rights petitions about specific instances of abuse to name and shame abusive governments. Although these rulings are not legally binding, they can, under certain conditions, apply sufficient pressure on governments to improve human rights. I employ a multi-method approach to test my argument from different angles and levels of analysis. I focus on the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) which oversees the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. I interviewed HRC members and organizations who represent victims before the Committee to ground this research with practitioners’ experience. I test my theoretical expectations with original data on petitions, cross-country quantitative analysis, and policy case studies. I present a novel dataset of 984 petitions, including information on individual identities, the role of third-party representation, and the specific rights under contestation. This dissertation shows that victims of human rights abuse, when supported by non-governmental organizations, can sufficiently pressure some repressive governments to improve respect for human rights. The European Union has a crucial role throughout this process. Economic dependence on the EU not only incentivizes regimes to participate but also increases the reputational costs of HRC naming and shaming, which leads to short-term improvements in human rights.