When All Else Fails: International Adjudication of Human Rights Abuse Claims, 1976-1999

Although interest in the consolidation and expansion of the international human rights regime has grown in recent years, little attention is accorded to the formal procedures that allow individuals aggrieved by states to appeal directly to an international audience. Using data for 82 countries between 1976 and 1999, this article examines the political and cultural factors that produce cross-national variation in the propensity of individuals to file allegations of human rights abuse with the Human Rights Committee. Negative binomial and event history analyses indicate that the number and rate of human rights abuse claims (1) increase as a country's human rights practices worsen; (2) decline as domestic "opportunity structures" become available; and (3) increase with the cultural empowerment of individuals.