The international human rights regime and checks and balances in the Global South

This chapter examines the role and impact of the international human rights regime (IHRG) on the checks and balances mechanisms of Global South states. Our objective is to understand when and how international human rights norms influence domestic checks and balances mechanisms. International human rights are universal and are granted directly to individuals. In the past decades, we have witnessed an unprecedented expansion of the internationally recognized rights of all people, with the acceptance of the IHRG as a principal attribute in the quest for international peace and security. These developments are analyzed from the perspective of sovereignty and governmentality. This chapter shows that mechanisms of checks and balances, in the IHRG, can be understood as one of the core principles of the international legal order, and thus can have an effect on the general law of democratic and nondemocratic states.