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In an era of worldwide rights regression, beleaguered Taiwan remains Asia's most democratic, gender equitable, and liberal internationalist nation. What accounts for this seemingly exceptional record—and how does the feminist factor contribute to the construction of rights? Bridging constructivist and feminist scholarship, this essay argues that gender equity is a force multiplier for democratization as it empowers civil society and fosters legitimacy at home and abroad. In a three-level game, states at the margin of the international system may benefit from rights reform that expands the national interest and delivers material and reputational rewards. The case of Taiwan illustrates the dynamics of the double transition to liberal democracy and a liberal gender regime and its projection to world politics. The rewards of rights for Taiwan suggest a wider range of options even in small states facing regional challenges—and greater attention to the feminist factor in world politics. (Pac Rev / GIGA)

Since their emergence in the late eighteenth century, doctrines of universal individual rights have been variously criticized as philosophically confused, politically inefficacious, ideologically particular, and Eurocentric. Nevertheless, today the discourse of universal human rights is more internationally widespread and influential than ever. In Evidence for Hope, leading international relations scholar Kathryn Sikkink argues that this is because human rights laws and institutions work. Sikkink rejects the notion that human rights are a Western imposition and points to a wide range of evidence that she claims demonstrates the effectiveness of human rights in bringing about a world that is appreciably improved in many ways from what it was previously. We have invited a broad range of scholars to assess Sikkink's challenging claims.

This article considers the power and limits of law to address violence against women in semi-liberal, rapidly modernizing, and highly unequal «BRICS and beyond» regimes. While rights optimists laud law's power to establish norms and accountability, feminist critics decry inherent gender bias and inappropriate diffusion. To advance the debate, I argue that the balance will depend on specific features of law: architecture, access, and enforcement. The essay traces the influence of these barriers to gender justice in a series of cases, and suggests that mobilization to transform or supplement these features of law is the most constructive response.Received: 25 July 2016Accepted: 30 November 2016Published online: 11 December 2017

Spanish version of a symbolic politics analysis of Argentina's human rights movement and 1980's transition to democracy, originally published in 1994 with Stanford University Press, with a new epilogue.

Revised edition of 1994 out-of-print Stanford University Press study of human rights protest, social change, and democratization in Argentina. A symbolic politics analysis of the truth commission, trials, and policy reform in Latin America's most sweeping transition of the 1980's.