European Political Science Review
The politicisation of state-NGO relations in the field of human rights
2026-06-10
This article develops an innovative quantitative analysis of the drivers of state–NGO relations in the field of human rights, specifically focusing on their political drivers. Drawing on cross-national survey data from 2,000+ reported interactions between NGOs, national and EU governmental actors in 26 EU Member States, we examine how national governments’ political orientation, the level of politicisation of human rights issues, and multilevel governance dynamics shape the frequency and nature of state-NGO and EU-NGO interactions. Our multilevel regression models show that NGOs’ relations with conservative governments are less collaborative, though not less frequent, than with progressive ones. For highly politicised human rights issues, interactions between governmental actors and NGOs are less frequent and less collaborative. NGOs facing conservative governments report more frequent and more collaborative interactions with EU institutions, consistent with multilevel ‘venue-shopping’ strategies. These findings highlight the role of political context in shaping European human rights governance.