Global Civil Society and the International Human Rights Movement: Citizen Participation in Human Rights International Nongovernmental Organizations

TLDR

The number of HRINGOs has grown enormously in recent decades, prompting investigation of country‑level characteristics that foster greater participation in the international human rights movement. The study examines patterns of citizen participation in the global human rights movement by analyzing memberships in HRINGOs and investigates country‑level characteristics that foster greater participation. Using social movement and world society theory, the authors applied multivariate regression and panel analyses to explain HRINGO memberships across 1978, 1988, and 1998. Embeddedness in global civil society and international human‑resource flows are the strongest predictors of HRINGO memberships, and their influence has grown over time while domestic factors have weakened.

Abstract

We examine patterns of citizen participation in the global human rights movement through memberships in human rights international nongovernmental organizations (HRINGOs). After showing enormous growth in the number of HRINGOs in recent decades, we investigate country level characteristics leading to greater participation in the international human rights movement. Drawing on the social movement literature and world society theory, we employ multivariate regression analyses to explain HRINGO memberships in 1978, 1988 and 1998. To understand changes over time, we also use panel analyses for 1978–88 and 1988–98. The strongest predictors of memberships in HRINGOs are found to be embeddedness in global civil society and international flows of human resources. The effects of these international factors grew stronger over time while domestic factors became less important.