Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2020 2(1) 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Africa Asia-Pacific Eastern Europe Latin America and Caribbean Western Europe and Others Figure 3. Proportion of states with domestic provisions by region. Global statistical analysis also sheds light on the relationship between ratification of international treaties obliging states to criminalise human exploitation and domestic legislative efforts implementing such. Many international jurists operate from the premise that ‘almost all nations observe almost all principles of international law and almost all of their obligations almost all of the time’. 22 However, the evidence of such remains ambiguous, and may diverge substantially between different branches of international law and between states. With regard to international human rights treaties, the question of whether ratification results in improved protection of human rights within states depends on a plethora of factors which cannot be distilled into a set of generalised observations or conclusions. However, debates over the efficacy of human rights treaties in effecting change continue. Having conducted both statistical and case analyses, Beth Simmons argues that, on average, ratification of human rights treaties produces positive improvements in the protection of rights in practice. 23 However, Emilie Hafner-Burton and Kiyoteru Tsutsui contend that, although human rights instruments may be ‘effective in stable and consolidating democracies with strong civil society activism’, they generally fail to effect meaningful change in the most repressive and rights-abusing states where change 22 23 Louis Henkin, How Nations Behave: Law and Foreign Policy (2nd edn, Columbia University Press 1979) 47. Beth A Simmons, Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics (Cambridge University Press 2009). 164