ABSTRACT

Development of human rights regimes was primarily motivated because of demands for respect, power, wealth, enlightenment, well-being, affection, and moral rectitude. The international human rights treaty system has evolved through a gradual process of negotiation and bargaining among United Nations member states. The United Nations human rights system is based on a 2-track approach to monitoring participation and compliance with charter and treaty-based organs. The United Nations convention on torture (CAT) holds a pre-eminent position among the body of human rights texts. The continued inability of the human rights regimes to enhance participation and compliance with specific conventions points not only to the anarchic structure of the international system, but it also highlights the value of torture as a political tool for several state parties and non-state actors. A combination of democracy and high economic achievement seems to be a very good predictor of a state's entry into human rights regimes as exemplified by the OECD countries.