Measuring the Impact of Human Rights Organizations David L. Cingranelli and David L. Richards No comparative, systematic, quantitative research has been conducted linking the activities of national or international non-governmental human rights organizations (NGOs and INGOs) to improvements in the human rights practices of governments. 1 There is a substantial and convincing body of qualitative research demonstrating that international NGOs have been effective in putting new issues on the international human rights agenda, have affected the content of important human rights documents, have helped to monitor the human rights practices of national governments, and have assisted in the implementation of the provisions of human rights agreements. 2 Much of the existing research on human rights NGOs and INGOs consists of any of four types: case studies of individual organizations working for human rights; 3 comparative studies of a select number of organizations; 4 studies of the work of human rights organizations and institutions in specific countries or regions; 5 and studies of the political processes surrounding human rights standard-setting and enforcement. 6 Qualitative case studies of the effects of NGOs and INGOs on the human rights practices of specific governments are useful for answering questions about agenda setting and standard setting, and for developing and refining hypotheses about the effectiveness of NGOs in improving the human rights practices of governments. However, they cannot be used to provide scientific evidence of effectiveness of human rights organizations in improving the human rights practices of target governments. 7 We assume that the main question about the impact of human rights organizations on the practices of target governments may be stated as follows: Do the activities of NGOs and 1 Though there are several types of NGOs and INGOs, we use those acronyms in this paper to refer to human rights organizations only. 2 See, e.g., Paul Wapner. 1996. Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics. Albany, NY: State University of NY Press; Thomas G. Weiss, Leon Gordenker, ed. 1996. NGOs, the UN and Global Governance. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner; and Margaret Keck, Kathryn Sikkink. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 3 See David Forsythe. 1976. The Red Cross as a Transnational Movement: Conserving and Changing the Nation-State System. International Organization 30:607; and Howard Tolley. 1989. Popular Sovereignty and International Law: ICJ Strategies for Human Rights Standard-Setting. Human Rights Quarterly 11:561. 4 See Harry Scoble, Laurie Wiseberg. 1976. Human Rights NGOs: Notes Towards Comparative Analysis. Revue des Droits de L'Homme:611. 5 See Iain Guest. 1990. Behind the Disappearances: Argentina's Dirty War Against Human Rights and the United Nations. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press; Ron Pagnucco, John D. McCarthy. 1992. Advocating Nonviolent Direct Action in Latin America: The Antecedents and Emergence of SERPAJ. In Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective: Revival, edited by A. S. Boronislaw Misztal. Westport, CT: Praeger; and Kathryn Sikkink. 1993. Human Rights, Principled Issue-Networks, and Sovereignty in Latin America. International Organization 47:411. 6 See Jack Donnelly. 1986. International human Rights: A Regime Analysis. International Organization 40:599; David Forsythe. 1991. The Internationalization of Human Rights. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books; and Jackie Smith. 1995. Transnational Political Processes and the Human Rights Movement. Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change:185. 7 By "target government" we mean the national government of a country that is the focus of influence attempts by human rights organizations aimed at improving that government's human rights practices.