Human Rights Naming and Shaming: International and Domestic Processes

Abstract

One of the most important developments in the post-World War II era has been the growth of a global human rights regime. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights established basic global standards of human rights that have provided the basis for subsequent treaties, human rights institutions, increasing attention to human rights by states, and a vast network of human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Enforcement of these human rights standards requires independent information on violations, and human rights NGOs such as Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch, intergovernmental organizations such as the UN Human Rights Council, and government agencies such as the US State Department produce a multitude of reports on human rights violations that occur around the world. Such monitoring efforts become the basis for “naming and shaming” alleged violators of human rights. Indeed, Kenneth Roth (2004, 67), Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, wrote that “the core of our methodology is our ability to investigate, expose, and shame.” Social scientists have recently begun researching this systematically to determine which violators are shamed and how effective this is at actually reducing human rights abuses. Such research has typically focused on this international side of naming and shaming, while domestic forms of naming and shaming are often neglected.