What is it about?
This article examines how states that are parties to the Convention Against Torture respond when violations of their citizens’ rights abroad are publicly exposed. It shows that the publication of abuses against a state’s nationals can trigger retaliatory violations against foreign nationals at home. Focusing on interactions between CAT states, the study demonstrates a pattern of reciprocal behavior in which publicity generates a cycle of retaliation rather than improved protection.
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Why is it important?
Transparency and publicity are often assumed to strengthen human rights protection. This article challenges that assumption by showing that, under certain conditions, publicizing abuses can provoke counterproductive responses. By identifying retaliation as a mechanism linking exposure and subsequent violations, the study highlights a neglected risk in international human rights monitoring and raises important questions about how to protect foreign nationals without fueling reciprocal harm.
Perspectives
I approach this article from a concern with the interactive dynamics of human rights politics. Rather than viewing violations and responses as isolated national processes, this study treats them as relational and strategic. By focusing on retaliation between states that share formal legal commitments, the article reflects my broader interest in how international human rights institutions shape behavior not only through compliance pressures but also through unintended cycles of response and counter response.
Professor Sara Beth Kahn-Nisser
Open University of Israel
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Publication of foreigners’ human rights abuses and retaliation between Convention Against Torture (CAT) states, International Journal Canada s Journal of Global Policy Analysis, March 2023, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/00207020231178390.
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