When Treaty Beneficiaries Resist: Working Children and Treaty Incorporation

• In Event: Resistance and Reconsideration

Abstract

Why are human rights treaties opposed by their intended beneficiaries, and what are the consequences? I argue that the resistance of treaty beneficiaries, rooted in material concerns over the distributive effects of human rights treaties, can fracture transnational advocacy networks and alter policymakers' calculus, making non-compliance more likely. I illustrate the theory by tracing the adoption and aftermath of a law contravening international treaties against child labor. Drawing on my extensive fieldwork in Bolivia, I use data from in-depth interviews, as well as legislative records, newspaper articles, and public statements. By exploiting within-case variation, the case shows how normative contestation from treaty beneficiaries can disrupt traditional channels of advocacy influence, refining seminal transnational activism models.

Author

• Andrea Vilan, American University