ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the study of human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in International Relations. It focuses on the definition of the organizations and the variation that exists within the sector. The chapter outlines how existing theoretical approaches in International Relations have approached human rights NGOs. It traces on the tactics and strategies that NGOs have used in the pursuit of human rights improvement and then focus on what recent empirical scholarship has found about their impact. The chapter addresses what we see as the coming challenges in this area, both for advocates on the ground and for International Relations scholars interested in studying this dynamic NGO sector. Notable financial scandals within the NGO community represent a complete lack of effective accountability mechanisms, which may lead to poor performance of programmes and theft through accounting manipulation. International Relations scholarship has examined human rights NGOs for some time.
