Q&A with Kiyoteru Tsutsui

What also emerged from the in-depth examination of these social movements is that these local groups not only receive the benefits of global human rights but also give back to global human rights. Initially, their engagement tends to be more instrumental, trying to get something out of international human rights institutions. But once some of their goals are met and their participation in global forums becomes extended, they tend to develop commitment to contribute to the international forums that they received benefits from. This feedback happened to all three groups as they contributed to consolidation and expansion of global human rights norms. These core findings emerged from data analysis, and the original focus on the global-local interplay in human rights morphed into a focus on how global human rights transforms movement actorhood of the minority groups and leads to expanded activism and greater success, and on how those local groups feed back to global human rights to contribute to the sustenance of the global human rights infrastructure.