Contentious compliance : dissent and repression under international human rights law / Courtenay R. Conrad and Emily Hencken Ritter.

Includes a bibliography and index

Do human rights treaties protect rights? -- A model of conflict and constraint -- Empirical implications of treaty effects on conflict -- Using data to determine the effect of treaties on repression & dissent -- Substantive empirical results : government repression -- Substantive empirical results : mobilized dissent -- Conclusion : human rights treaties (sometimes) protect rights.

Do international human rights treaties stop governments from repressing their people? Contentious Compliance argues that governments violate rights as part of a conflict with potential or actual dissidents. By introducing dissent to a theory of repression, the book shows when states will violate rights-and when international laws will protect people. Formal theory and data analyses show that when political leaders have the greatest incentives to repress-when they benefit highly from holding power and domestic courts cannot stop them-human rights treaties alter the structure of the conflict bet.