Reputation

Abstract

This chapter surveys global South publics’ definitions of “human rights” and perceptions of local human rights organizations. Many human rights practitioners fear negative public opinions about human rights ideas and organizations, such as seeing them as protecting criminals or terrorists, imposing foreign ideas, or offering a rhetorical “cover” for offenses of governments. Data show, however, that people generally regard “human rights” very positively and have high levels of trust in local human rights organizations. Another key finding is that pro-human rights constituents generally have anti-power worldviews, including mistrust in their national governments, the US government, and multinational corporations. Findings do not show evidence of a strong middle class human rights constituency, as some have argued, but instead suggest a constituency based more in worldview or ideology than materialist explanations.