Implementing Decisions of International Human Rights Institutions Evidence from the United Nations Human Rights Committee

Abstract

In recent years there is an increasing amount of research on the implementation of international law. However, there is almost no empirical research about implementing decisions of international human rights institutions. The decisions of those institutions are usually regarded as soft law and states do not have a clear legal obligation to implement them. In this article I bring original empirical data about how and when states implement decisions of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in individual communications. I hypothesize that the following factors influence the readiness of states to implement the views of the Committee: (1) the level of democracy and human rights protection in the state; (2) internal capacity; (3) strength of civil society; (4) type of remedy; (5) representation on the Committee; (6) subject-matter of the communication. I find that the most important factor for implementing remedies granted by the Committee is the high human rights score of the state. The internal capacity of the state is also significant, but to a lesser extent than found in previous studies. Also, I find a certain connection between the state being represented on the Committee and its willingness to implement the remedies.