Deflecting criticism: backsliding states and women’s economic rights reform

States’ responses to international criticism range from denial and aversion to strategic reinterpretation. One of these responses involves reforming a human rights area that poses a low threat to the incumbent’s survival in power while continuing violations of other rights. In democratically backsliding countries, reform of political rights and freedoms poses an exceptionally high threat to incumbents’ survival in power. This article examines whether backsliding countries respond to criticism of their violations of political rights and freedoms by reforming rights that would not threaten stability, such as women’s economic rights. To address this question, the article uses both an extended data set of the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s criticism of countries’ civil and political rights violations and interview data. The analysis shows that following criticism of political rights violations, backsliding countries reform women’s rights at a significantly higher rate than non-backsliding and non-shamed countries.