Mobilizing 'Third-Party Influence': The Impact of Amnesty International's Naming and Shaming

Abstract

Human rights international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) have extensively used 'naming and shaming' for social change around the world. Amnesty International (AI) has been the world's most powerful human rights INGO, which routinely utilizes the mobilization of third-party influence. However, do AI's methods, particularly its special country reports, actually improve human rights practices in dictatorships, that is, where the mobilization of external pressure is needed most for domestic social change? If so, under what conditions? I argue that third parties' commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights is key to the effectiveness of AI's efforts. Show more