Do Patterns of Treaty Ratifications Reveal Societal Preferences? Analysis of Twelve Council of Europe Conventions

Citation: Norbert Brunner / Christof Tschohl, Do Patterns of Treaty Ratifications Reveal Societal Preferences? Analysis of Twelve Council of Europe Conventions, in: Jusletter IT 1

There is an ongoing discussion, if human rights (HR) treaties are empty promises, or if treaties support HR fulfilment through a process of acculturation. This paper develops a third position: Societal preferences are the root causes of both HR fulfilment and of treaty ratification. This is demonstrated for twelve selected Council of Europe (CoE) treaties. Two dimensions of societal preferences are identified with two groups of each six treaties, whereby the strength of preferences is measured by the count of ratifications. A legal analysis relates this to concrete choices by societies with respect to HR of women in sex work (SW).

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