Replication Data for: Do international human rights treaties improve respect for human rights?, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 49 (6), 2005, pp. 925-953

After the nonbinding Universal Declaration of Human Rights, many global and regional human rightstreaties have been concluded. Critics argue that these are unlikely to have made any actual difference in reality.Others contend that international regimes can improve respect for human rights in state parties, particularlyin more democratic countries or countries with a strong civil society devoted to human rights and withtransnational links. The findings suggest that rarely does treaty ratification have unconditional effects onhuman rights. Instead, improvement in human rights is typically more likely the more democratic the countryor the more international nongovernmental organizations its citizens participate in. Conversely, in veryautocratic regimes with weak civil society, ratification can be expected to have no effect and is sometimeseven associated with more rights violation.