Rights violations and international public opinion

Victims of human rights violations and their activist allies often attempt to rally external solidarity for aggrieved groups in order to end repression. We conduct a nation-wide survey experiment to explore how the nature of the repression victims face impacts the sympathy they receive from U.S. respondents. We find that violations linked to religious freedom and linguistic rights elicit more sympathy than more general violations and neglect. In contrast, violations linked to national identity do not elicit greater sympathy. Moreover, we find that the effect of different violations varies according to respondents’ partisan identity, with religious freedom violations attracting more sympathy among Republicans but falling flat with Democrats. This study highlights how the nature of repression impacts the degree of sympathy for victims. We note the significant implication of these findings for ongoing research on the work of transnational advocacy networks and “rebel diplomats” that are working to garner sympathy for aggrieved communities, as well international organizations and states working to “name and shame” human rights violators.