Global human rights and ethnic social movements in the contemporary world

The theoretical tools of a world society approach and of social movement studies are used to propose a new framework that explains the contemporary worldwide increase in ethnic social movements. Unlike theories of ethnic mobilization, which focus on domestic social changes, I highlight the impact of the global expansion of human rights principles. The expansion of human rights has given rise to ethnic social movements by creating an international context in which (1) violations of minority rights can undermine a country's reputation in international society, thus rendering the government more vulnerable to claims by ethnic groups, and (2) ethnic groups become more aware of their entitled rights and obtain more material and ideological resources from internal and external actors, thus advancing their capacity for mobilization.;I examine three empirical issues to evaluate this argument, using both quantitative and qualitative data. First, how have human rights principles gained legitimacy in the global political arena? Second, how do the ideas involved influence local human rights practices? And third, how does the diffusion of the human rights model affect ethnic social movements?;First, the history of global human rights reveals that the process involved many reluctant governments and fervent nongovernmental actors. Historical contingencies of the cold war locked up unsuspecting governments into the human rights instruments, raising the legitimacy of human rights ideas in international politics. Meanwhile, nongovernmental actors contributed to the institutionalization of human rights ideas by pressuring governments and publicizing human rights abuses.;Second, the international human rights regime's effects on local practice are mixed. Time-series analyses show that the national treaty ratification does not contribute to improvement in actual practice but that national linkage to global civil society does.;Finally, a case study on the Ainu mobilization, and statistical analyses of cross-national data on ethnic mobilization show that linkage to global civil society encourages ethnic social movements, and that the effect has grown over time corresponding to the expansion of global human rights.;Taken together, the analyses offer support for the argument that the expansion of human rights has contributed to the global rise of ethnic social movements.