The Strength of Our Commitments

"The number of international agreements defining and committing signatories to enforcing human rights in their domestic law has grown over the postwar era. Accompanying these agreements has been the development of domestic agencies to enforce these obligations. Cora Lacatus has surveyed human rights agencies around the world to determine how effective they are in enforcing human rights and what explains the success of some of these agencies and the failures of others. Lacatus contends that international support for these agencies is critical to their success. She points to the efforts of the European Union to set standards for agency performance and to provide political support for the agencies in its member countries as an example of the influence of international organizations. Lacatus also contends that how these agencies cultivate domestic political support is important. Are the agencies important to a government in sending a signal to key groups in the country of its support for human rights? Does the vitality of the agency send an important signal to key international actors of the governments support for certain values? The audience for this book will primarily be among scholars in international relations. It is the last book for the series Chicago Series on International and Domestic Institutions"--