Political Science

Human rights regimes are international non-governmental institutions whose mandate is operate as government watchdogs on matters of civil and political rights of citizens within the member states. These regimes include among others European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights, and the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Moravcsik, n.d, p.1) and their primary object is to ensure the citizens human rights are not abused or violated. Various theories have been brought forward to explain the establishment of binding human rights regimes in postwar Europe, with the realists giving credit to powerful democracies and ideational crediting governments and transnational bodies in liberal democracies through coercion and persuasion respectively however, the new democracies governments are the pivotal force behind these regimes.

The realist theories hold interstate power as the force behind creation of human rights regimes whereby resource oriented democracies especially in Europe and the US finance the creation of powerful regimes that forcefully propel international governments to obey human rights standards. The ideational theories hold that normative persuasion comes into play where transnational groups use idealistic or moral principles to motivate governments to observe human rights.

A different view, republican liberalism, argues that governments are liberal and rational and therefore ensure internal political maturity that will influence social interaction and enhance liberal values. This initiative of self-democratization, more so in newly established and relatively unstable democracies creates a great influence in origination of human rights regimes.

The results of the tests conducted on one of the human rights regimes, UCHR, were skewed towards the republican liberalism. This implies that enhancing integrity in the internal political policies, as well as credible interaction between the domestic political representatives and international institutions play a big role in creation of human rights regimes. Moreover, realism and idealism portray weaknesses in international cooperation thus are unable to beget sustainable human rights regimes.