You Say You Want a Revolution: The Arab Spring and the Role of the Human Rights Regime

19 Pages Posted: 19 Aug 2013

See all articles by Rhonda Callaway

Rhonda Callaway

Sam Houston State University

Julie Harrelson-Stephens

Stephen F. Austin State University

Date Written: 2013

Abstract

The Arab Spring has fundamentally reshaped how the world thinks about human rights and democratization. We explore how the human rights regime affects the democratic revolutionary movements of the Arab Spring and subsequently how the Arab Spring changes the nature of the human rights regime. We find that the demands for better human rights, combined with international pressure from the human rights regime, led initially to a promise of improved human rights in general, and women’s rights in particular in most countries. However, the promise of expanded rights followed by their suppression created a climate where there is a discrepancy between the expectation and the realization of rights. In previous cases where this cycle of rights expansion and contraction has occurred (Northern Ireland and the Basque Region), we argue that there is a strengthening of resolve on the part of the individual participants and the human rights regime as whole. The case of the Arab Spring provides robust support for our conclusion that the repression of human rights only increases the resiliency of the human rights regime, a regime that has traditionally be deemed as weak.

Keywords: human rights regime, Arab Spring

Suggested Citation

Callaway, Rhonda and Harrelson-Stephens, Julie, You Say You Want a Revolution: The Arab Spring and the Role of the Human Rights Regime (2013). APSA 2013 Annual Meeting Paper, American Political Science Association 2013 Annual Meeting, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2301435

Rhonda Callaway (Contact Author)

Sam Houston State University ( email )

No Address Available

Julie Harrelson-Stephens

Stephen F. Austin State University ( email )

No Address Available

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