Human rights : the regional and global dynamics of change

The chapter's central argument is that the instrumental use of membership and exclusion, and processes of socialization and norm adoption, operates differently depending on whether norms are promoted and implemented at the regional, as opposed to the global, level. The chapter identifies legitimacy as a key concept in explaining how the practice of human rights operates to change the behavior of states at the regional and global level. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the movement towards abolition of the death penalty as an example of how human rights norms are diffused across time and place. The chapter notes the regional variations in adoption of the norm of abolition and suggests that factors such as an institutionalized regional human rights system and a supportive regional hegemon are important variables in explaining the success of norm promotion and adoption.