Philosophy, ethics and law are often considered at the forefront of human rights. Owing to the interdisciplinary nature of human rights these approaches have taken a stronger presence in the field, therefore noting a lack of political dimensions. This neglect of human rights in the discipline of political science was seen between the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 (UDHR) and the mid-1970s. Freeman (2017) explains that this is due to two crucial influences in political science: realism and positivism. He suggests that “’[r]ealism taught that politics was overwhelmingly the pursuit of power and that ethical considerations, such as human rights, played at most a marginal role… [p]ositivism taught that social scientists should eliminate ethical judgements from their work because they were unscientific”. However, as years past and human rights became more salient, political science has become increasingly important especially in international politics.

Landman’s (2005) model of the International Human Rights Regime highlights the fact that international human rights need to be understood through multiple perspectives including international law, international relations and comparative politics. This is particularly important as there is often a misconception that law is at the forefront of human rights. Although law and politics are inter-related, legal scholars primarily make judgments on whether the law has been violated or observed, political scientists, on the other hand, explain why and how the law is violated or observed. Political science looks at theories that deal with the reality of the world by building upon a variety of different methods from social sciences. This goes beyond the scope of suggesting what should happen or what could happen in the world, and rather what is happening in the world. Political scientists bring social science methodologies to rationalise behaviour through evidence in order to identify key influences and causal mechanisms. These, therefore, identify strategies through which human rights can most successfully be promoted.

This essay seeks to shine a light and break down complex insights that political science provides in its approach to human rights. Topics discussed include research observations on whether international human rights instruments have played a role in protecting human rights, Risse, Ropp and Sikkink’s (1999) ‘spiral model’ and whether it establishes a general theory of human rights change and the concept of hu