Global Civil Society and the International Human Rights Movement: Citizen Participation in Human Rights International Nongovernmental

We examine patterns ofcitizen participation in the global human rights movement through memberships in human rights international nongovernmental organizations (HRINGOs). After showing enormous growth in the number ofHRINGOs in recent decades, we investigate country level characteristics leading to greater participation in the international human rights movement. Drawing on the social movement literature and world society theory, we employ multivariate regression analyses to explain HRINGO memberships in 1978, 1988 and 1998. To understand changes over time, we also use panel analyses for 1978-88 and 1988-98. The strongest predictors of memberships in HRINGOs are found to be embeddedness in global civil society and international jlows ofhuman resources. The effects of these international factors grew stronger over time while domestic factors became less important. Nongovernmental factors have been the engine ofglobal expansion ofhuman rights in the post World War 11 era (Lauren 1998; Weiss & Gordenker 1996; Wiseberg 1992). Among them are international nongovernmental groups such as Amnest