The idea that regional organizations rightly occupy a central place in human rights, global governance, and international intervention has come to be taken-for-granted in international politics. Yet, the idea of regions as authorities is not a natural feature of the international system. Instead, it was strategically constructed by the leaders in the Global South as a way of maintaining their voice in global decision-making and managing (though not preventing) outside interference. Katherine M. Beall explores changes in the norms and practice of international interference in late 1970s and early 1980s, a time when Latin American and African leaders began to empower their regional organizations to enforce human rights. This change represented a form of quiet resistance to the imposition of human rights enforcement and a transformation in the ongoing struggle for self-determination. This book will appeal to scholars of international relations, international history, and human rights.

‘Katherine M. Beall reminds us that the global human rights regime has never been just a Western-imposition on the world but a complex interplay between power and principle, with Global South states and civil society exercising agency through the history of this rule-based order and profoundly shaping the web of international institutions that has resulted. A fascinating historical and theoretical read for scholars and students alike.'

Charli Carpenter - Professor in the Department of Political Science and Legal Studies, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

‘Katherine M. Beall offers a novel and compelling argument about the uneven development of international law and institutions across the globe. In Latin America and Africa, leaders had strategic incentives to create their own regional organizations to maintain control over sensitive issues, like human rights. By contrast, in much of Asia and the Middle East those strategic imperatives were lacking. This masterfully written book should be required reading for anyone interested in human rights and international institutions as well as for those interested in how Global South leaders helped shape the current international system.'

Erik Voeten - Peter F. Krogh Professor of Geopolitics and Justice in World Affairs, Georgetown University

‘In the late 1970s, Latin American and African countries made a stunning shift, moving away from condemning human rights institutions as an affront to their sovereignty, and instead embracing the regional enforcement of human rights. In this compelling book, Katherine Beall shows us these countries saw these regional human rights institutions as strategic, a way to protect these highly dependent states from Western interference in their domestic affairs. Carefully researched and argued, Beall's book is an important call for scholars to look beyond the ‘global order' for evidence of progress on human rights.'

Stacie E. Goddard - Betty Freyhof Johnson '44 Professor of Political Science, Wellesley College