ABSTRACT
Treaty design and commitment to international human rights treaties
The credible threat argument and its implications
Empirical analyses of state commitment to the ICC in the context of other international human rights treaties
Conclusion
This chapter begins by situating the book’s credible threat argument in the context of several prominent theories seeking to explain why states join international human rights treaties. It then tests the explanatory power of those theories by quantitatively examining state decisions to commit to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The quantitative tests also examine state commitment in the context of the 13 other international human rights treaties discussed in Chapter 1 in an effort to analyze further the role differing levels of enforcement mechanisms play in influencing ratification behavior. To conclude, the chapter addresses some implications of the findings regarding the ICC’s likelihood of realizing its goal of ending impunity for mass atrocities.