Contesse & Huneeus: Moral Conservatives and the Future of Latin American Human Rights

Jorge Contesse (Rutgers Univ. - Law) & Alexandra Huneeus (Univ. of Wisconsin - Law) have posted Moral Conservatives and the Future of Latin American Human Rights (American Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Human rights institutions are under stress around the world. Threats of non-compliance, denunciation, and other forms of backlash are more likely in the current context than in the recent past. But it is also the case that social movements from a greater variety of ideological camps are engaging with international human rights law and institutions. In this essay, we explore the rise of moral conservative engagement with the inter-American human rights system (IAHRS) and consider the implications for the future of human rights. These actors have grown in sophistication and number since they first began to engage with the IAHRS in the early 2010s on issues of gender, sexuality, and reproductive justice. Today, they work through highly successful Transnational Activists Networks (TANs) that encompass academic circles and political actors in positions of significant power. We argue that greater engagement by moral conservatives with the IAHRS may help it survive Latin America's "revolution to the right"-the dramatic recent rise of far-right governments in the region, some with authoritarian tendencies. Survival, however, may come at a cost.