The Importance of Subnational Engagement with Human Rights Treaties

Abstract

AbstractMaking human rights a reality requires that various types of domestic actors take measures, which is very demanding, all the more so in federal systems. Based on a comparative case study of Swiss cantons, we argue that an important part of the game is played at the subnational level, and not following a top-down trajectory, but with repeated back and forth between and within the levels of governance. Actors use human rights treaties in the policy process, sometimes leading to an engagement that increases human rights implementation, and at other times not. In this chapter, we first explore how international law continues to rely upon states’ domestic political institutions to fulfil international obligations—particularly those obligations that require the adoption of policy measures. We review how this state of affairs points to the central role of domestic actors participating in policy processes at the subnational level. Secondly, we contribute to concept formation, by explaining what we mean by political authorities’ ‘engagement with human rights treaties’, which is a key notion that we will use to describe an often crucial, intermediary condition between inaction and the potential implementation of the treaty.