IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/compsc/v41y2024i5p556-573.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

States living in glasshouses …: Why fighting domestic insurgency changes how countries vote in the UN human rights council

Author

Listed:
  • Shubha Kamala Prasad

    (38962Hertie School, Germany)

  • Irfan Nooruddin

    (Georgetown University, USA)

Abstract

How do conflicts within a country's borders affect its behavior beyond them? We argue that fighting insurgencies at home shapes a country's human rights posture at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). States often suppress insurgencies using methods that violate their international human rights commitments. They are therefore hesitant to condemn other countries’ alleged violations for fear of reciprocal condemnation of their own actions. This is especially true in countries with greater media freedom where the media is more likely to hold the state accountable for human rights violations, and to highlight its apparent hypocrisy internationally. Such states, we argue, are more likely to vote against or abstain from resolutions that target individual states for human rights transgressions. We test this claim with a global statistical analysis of country voting patterns at the UNHRC from 1973 to 2017. Our results yield new insights into the determinants of countries’ voting behavior in multilateral human rights fora.

Suggested Citation

  • Shubha Kamala Prasad & Irfan Nooruddin, 2024. "States living in glasshouses …: Why fighting domestic insurgency changes how countries vote in the UN human rights council," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 41(5), pages 556-573, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:compsc:v:41:y:2024:i:5:p:556-573
    DOI: 10.1177/07388942231198489
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07388942231198489
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/07388942231198489?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anita R. Gohdes, 2020. "Repression Technology: Internet Accessibility and State Violence," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(3), pages 488-503, July.
    2. Hill, Daniel W. & Jones, Zachary M., 2014. "An Empirical Evaluation of Explanations for State Repression," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 108(3), pages 661-687, August.
    3. Christian Davenport & David A. Armstrong, 2004. "Democracy and the Violation of Human Rights: A Statistical Analysis from 1976 to 1996," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(3), pages 538-554, July.
    4. Vreeland, James Raymond, 2008. "Political Institutions and Human Rights: Why Dictatorships Enter into the United Nations Convention Against Torture," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(1), pages 65-101, January.
    5. Justin Esarey & Jacqueline H. R. DeMeritt, 2017. "Political Context and the Consequences of Naming and Shaming for Human Rights Abuse," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 589-618, July.
    6. Bernhard Boockmann & Axel Dreher, 2011. "Do human rights offenders oppose human rights resolutions in the United Nations?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 146(3), pages 443-467, March.
    7. Simon Hug & Richard Lukács, 2014. "Preferences or blocs? Voting in the United Nations Human Rights Council," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 83-106, March.
    8. Putnam, Robert D., 1988. "Diplomacy and domestic politics: the logic of two-level games," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(3), pages 427-460, July.
    9. Hafner-Burton, Emilie M., 2008. "Sticks and Stones: Naming and Shaming the Human Rights Enforcement Problem," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(4), pages 689-716, October.
    10. Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya & Janz, Nicole & Berntsen, Øyvind Isachsen, 2018. "Human Rights Shaming and FDI: Effects of the UN Human Rights Commission and Council," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 222-237.
    11. Lyall, Jason, 2010. "Do Democracies Make Inferior Counterinsurgents? Reassessing Democracy's Impact on War Outcomes and Duration," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 64(1), pages 167-192, January.
    12. Karen E. Smith, 2006. "Speaking with One Voice? European Union Co‐ordination on Human Rights Issues at the United Nations," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 113-137, March.
    13. Irfan Nooruddin & Autumn Lockwood Payton, 2010. "Dynamics of influence in international politics: The ICC, BIAs, and economic sanctions," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 47(6), pages 711-721, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Axel Dreher & Martin Gassebner & Lars-H. R. Siemers, 2012. "Globalization, Economic Freedom, and Human Rights," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 56(3), pages 516-546, June.
    2. Bimal Adhikari & Jeffrey King & Lie Philip Santoso, 2024. "The limits of shame: UN shaming, NGO repression, and women's protests," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 41(3), pages 197-217, May.
    3. Simon Hug & Richard Lukács, 2014. "Preferences or blocs? Voting in the United Nations Human Rights Council," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 83-106, March.
    4. Meyerrose, Anna M & Nooruddin, Irfan, 2022. "The Authoritarian Trojan Horse Threatening Liberal International Organizations," Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Working Paper Series qt9n45z5cj, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California.
    5. Courtenay Ryals Conrad & Will H. Moore, 2010. "What Stops the Torture?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(2), pages 459-476, April.
    6. José Kaire, 2024. "Get the word out: Monitoring human rights reduces abuse," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 61(5), pages 808-824, September.
    7. Sara Kahn-Nisser, 2021. "For better or worse: Shaming, faming, and human rights abuse," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 58(3), pages 479-493, May.
    8. Thorin M. Wright, 2020. "Revisionist Conflict and State Repression," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 23(1), pages 49-72, March.
    9. M Christian Lehmann, 2023. "Foreign interests and state repression: Theory and evidence from the Armenian genocide," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 60(2), pages 307-321, March.
    10. Christopher Wiley Shay, 2023. "Swords into ploughshares? Why human rights abuses persist after resistance campaigns," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 60(1), pages 141-156, January.
    11. Eric Neumayer, 2013. "Do governments mean business when they derogate? Human rights violations during notified states of emergency," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-31, March.
    12. Joseph E. Aldy, 2017. "Policy surveillance in the G-20 fossil fuel subsidies agreement: lessons for climate policy," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 97-110, September.
    13. repec:got:cegedp:115 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Adam S. Chilton & Mila Versteeg, 2015. "The Failure of Constitutional Torture Prohibitions," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(2), pages 417-452.
    15. Karen E. Smith, 2017. "EU Member States at the UN: A Case of Europeanization Arrested?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 628-644, May.
    16. Diana Panke, 2017. "Speech is silver, silence is golden? Examining state activity in international negotiations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 121-146, March.
    17. Karin Johansson, 2024. "Talk of shame: Conflict-related sexual violence and bilateral critique within the United Nations," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 61(3), pages 429-445, May.
    18. Daniela Donno & Michael Neureiter, 2018. "Can human rights conditionality reduce repression? Examining the European Union’s economic agreements," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 335-357, September.
    19. Arye Hillman & Niklas Potrafke, 2015. "The UN Goldstone Report and retraction: an empirical investigation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 247-266, June.
    20. Joshua Holzer, 2020. "The effect of two-round presidential elections on human rights," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(12), pages 1-15, December.
    21. Raphael Becker & Arye Hillman & Niklas Potrafke & Alexander Schwemmer, 2015. "The preoccupation of the United Nations with Israel: Evidence and theory," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 413-437, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:compsc:v:41:y:2024:i:5:p:556-573. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.