What is it about?
This article examines how relationships between countries shape the amount and style of criticism used by UN treaty bodies, focusing on the Committee Against Torture. It asks whether ties between committee members’ home countries and the states under review matter for shaming practices. Using data from 2001 to 2022, the study shows that when such ties take the form of trade partnerships, reviewed countries receive more criticism. At the same time, this criticism is more likely to take the form of socializing shaming rather than disciplining shaming, combining critique with guidance and engagement.
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Why is it important?
Human rights shaming is often treated as a uniform strategy driven primarily by the severity of violations. This article shows that who criticizes whom also matters, and that relationships between states shape not only the quantity but the tone of criticism. By distinguishing between socializing and disciplining styles of shaming, the study adds nuance to debates about effectiveness, bias, and credibility in international human rights monitoring. The findings have implications for how treaty bodies balance pressure, cooperation, and legitimacy.
Perspectives
I approach this article from an interest in how international human rights monitoring works in practice rather than in principle. Rather than assuming that close relationships constrain criticism, this study explores how such ties can coexist with, and even facilitate, more frequent but softer forms of shaming. By focusing on style as well as substance, the article reflects a broader concern with the relational dynamics through which international institutions seek to influence state behavior without severing channels of dialogue.
Professor Sara Beth Kahn-Nisser
Open University of Israel
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Friendly advice: socializing shaming in the committee against torture, Contemporary Politics, January 2024, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/13569775.2024.2307087.
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