The Effect of Transparency on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights' Compliance Rates Open Access

Abstract

Despite states' acceptance of the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights within the Western Hemisphere, many states fail to comply fully with its judgments (Cavallaro and Brewer 2007). Thus, this thesis focuses on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and seeks to understand the conditions in which states are more likely to implement judicial orders. A review of the literature on compliance tends to suggest that increased transparency can induce states to comply with judicial decisions (Vanberg 2005). This thesis tests this theory at the Inter-American Court using media coverage as a proxy for transparency. Specifically, I will evaluate whether increased media coverage is positively associated with compliance, especially as the level of democracy increases. If this theory is supported at the Inter-American Court, this will have profound implications for other human rights tribunals who may be able to use publicity as a means of inducing compliance.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................... 1

CARACAZO V. VENEZUELA........................................................................................ .2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................ ....6

FIGURE 1:...............................................................................................................12

HYPOTHESES...........................................................................................................13

Table 1: Summary of Theories and Hypotheses...............................................................13

CHAPTER 3: BACKGROUND...........................................................................................13

ORGANS OF THE INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM....................................................................13

SUBMITTING A CASE TO COURT...................................................................................17

ADJUDICATION OF A CASE..........................................................................................20

COMPLIANCE WITH A JUDGMENT.......................................................................... .......23

CHAPTER 4: EMPIRICS: QUALITATIVE................................................................... ........24

THOSE INTERVIEWED.................................................................................................24

QUESTIONS ASKED....................................................................................................25

RESULTS..................................................................................................................26

Self Interest Theory:..................................................................................................26

Transparency............................................................................................................27

Public support...........................................................................................................28

Dissemination of Information.........................................................................................29

Drawbacks to transparency..........................................................................................36

CHAPTER 5: EMPIRICS-QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH........................................... .................38

TABLE 2: AVERAGE POLITY SCORES...............................................................................41

DEPENDENT VARIABLE-COMPLIANCE...............................................................................41

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES.............................................................................................42

Table 3: Fairness of Proceedings...................................................................................43

Table 4: Difficulty of Compliance...................................................................................44

Table 5: Third Party Participation in favor of plaintiff.........................................................46

MEASURING MEDIA COVERAGE............................................................................. .........47

Table 6: Media Coverage Distribution..............................................................................50

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS............................................................................................ ..50

Table 7: Cross tabulation of compliance and regime type................................................. ..51

Table 8: Interaction between democracy and media coverage.............................................51

Table 9: Predicted probabilities of compliance...................................................................52

Table 10: Compliance with IACHR judicial orders................................................................53

Figure 2: Predicted Probability of Compliance................................................................. ..58

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION.............................................................................................58

FIGURE 3...................................................................................................................59

WORKS CITED.............................................................................................................63

APPENDIX A:...............................................................................................................72

APPENDIX B…………………………………………………………………………….................................................73

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Political Science
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Political Science, International Law and Relations Political Science, General
Keyword	compliance transparency human rights Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Staton, Jeffrey, Emory University
Committee Members	Reinhardt, Eric, Emory University Hartfield-Mendez, Vialla, Emory University

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