Reinventing the International Human Rights Regime: Evolution and Effectiveness of the UN Human Rights Council

Abstract

The United Nations human rights regime was transformed into a new apparatus that received the approbation of the international community. The past United Nations human rights regime was seen as ineffective, divisive, politicized, and a protector of human rights violators rather than the victims of human rights abuses. This study examines the effectiveness of the new human rights apparatus, and whether the new human rights body has improved the conditions of human rights within the member-states of the new regime, throughout the different regions, and the effectiveness of 1503 resolutions aimed at gross violators. The use of statistical analyses was used for the purpose of determining the effectiveness of the regime using the political terror scale as a measure. Additionally, the effectiveness of the regime change was analyzed compared and contrasted between the two human rights bodies as well as examining other spurious factors for possible amelioration of human rights conditions. The conclusion demonstrated through the use of statistical analyses whether human rights conditions assuaged after the regime change in the human rights protection bodies. Revealed within, a complex set of factors explaining improvement in human rights including membership in the human rights body, regional polity, and income levels. Moreover, the use of statistical analyses ruled out a causal link between the issuance of resolutions by the new human rights regime and the assuagement of human rights conditions.