Sub-National Human Rights Institutions and the Domestication of International Human Rights Norms

Abstract

While the domestication of international human rights law has been intensively studied in recent years, little attention has been paid to the domestication role of sub-national human rights institutions, meaning those ombudsmen, human rights commissions, and similar independent non-judicial governmental institutions that possess sub-national mandates, and whose mission includes the implementation of human rights norms. This article demonstrates that sub-national human rights institutions around the world are not simply local institutions implementing local norms. Rather, they are increasingly involved in the domestication of international human rights law through their quasi-judicial resolution of disputes, promotion of governmental compliance with international norms; promotion of international norms in civil society; promotion of the use of international norms by the courts, and use of international norms as standards in human rights monitoring. The article explores the implications of these actions, and how the sub-national human rights institutions add to the existing domestication of international norms by national-level actors.