Committed to Rights: Volume 1
UN Human Rights Treaties and Legal Paths for Commitment and Compliance

How states commit to UN human rights treaties, not only whether they do so, is crucial to improving human rights.

Audrey L. Comstock (Author)

9781108830072, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 January 2021

200 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.5 cm, 0.506 kg

'Most people assume that states have to ratify a treaty in order for it to be effective but Committed to Rights presents a more nuanced account of treaty approval. Countries can also commit to treaties through signature, accession and succession, which Comstock identifies as distinct 'legal commitment paths.' She squeezes a surprising and compelling amount of analytical juice out of these legal distinctions and demonstrates the distinct way that each them shapes a country's performance on human rights.' Lisa Baldez, Professor of Government, and Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies, Dartmouth College

International treaties are the primary means for codifying global human rights standards. However, nation-states are able to make their own choices in how to legally commit to human rights treaties. A state commits to a treaty through four commitment acts: signature, ratification, accession, and succession. These acts signify diverging legal paths with distinct contexts and mechanisms for rights change reflecting legalization, negotiation, sovereignty, and domestic constraints. How a state moves through these actions determines how, when, and to what extent it will comply with the human rights treaties it commits to. Using legal, archival, and quantitative analysis this important book shows that disentangling legal paths to commitment reveals distinct and significant compliance outcomes. Legal context matters for human rights and has important implications for the conceptualization of treaty commitment, the consideration of non-binding commitment, and an optimistic outlook for the impact of human rights treaties.

1. Introduction
2. On ratification: rethinking a ratification-centered approach to international law
3. Legal paths for human rights treaty commitment and compliance
4. Signature: a first step in a two-step commitment process
5. Accession: late commitment and treaty negotiations
6. Succession: new states, old laws, and legitimacy
7. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Human rights [JPVH], Political control & freedoms [JPV], Politics & government [JP], Society & social sciences [J]