The Strength of Our Commitments: National Human Rights Institutions in Europe and Beyond

A deep dive into the mechanics of national human rights institutions and the forces that make or break their success. In the years since World War II, the endeavor to promote human rights has gained momentum and become increasingly important within international relations. Yet these efforts often run into serious problems of enforcement. Many countries formed national human rights institutions (NHRIs) with independent mandates to support and monitor government compliance with international human rights law. Be they commissions, ombudsmen, or tribunals, these institutions vary in their power and impact. For this book, Corina Lacatus surveyed NHRIs in Europe and around the world to determine their effectiveness and explain why some succeed while others fail. The Strength of Our Commitments explores the relationship between the domestic and international support an institution receives and its ability to secure resources, credibility, and tangibly improve human rights conditions. Lacatus shows that NHRIs can be models of resilience, even in the face of opposition from political elites. Although their impact on human rights is difficult to measure, The Strength of Our Commitments shows how NHRIs' strength comes from clearly defined formal powers, strong institutional leadership, and independence from political interference

"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"--