Do papal visits improve human rights and democracy in the host country?

More democracy

05. May 2024 9:18 p.m. Robert Klatt

The Pope often addresses human rights and the political situation in his host countries. A study now shows whether politics is influenced by it.

Hamburg, Germany). Major events, such as the World Cup, provide a country with a strong media presence. According to various studies, this leads the government of the country concerned to respect human rights more closely than before, even in problematic regimes. Researcher of University of Hamburg (UHH) around Prof. Dr. Jerg Gutmann has now examined whether and how papal visits influence human rights in the respective host country.

Researchers cite John Paul II, who visited Cuba in 1998, as an example of the positive effects of papal visits. The Catholic Church has already compiled a list of political prisoners and called on the government to release them. In fact, about half of the people were released from prison before or immediately after the Pope’s visit. The same happened with the papal visits to Cuba in 2012 and 2015, before which the government released a total of 3,000 political prisoners.

Interaction between the host country and the Church

According to their publication in the specialized magazine Comparative political studies For their study, the researchers examined whether these were isolated cases or whether regular papal visits had a positive impact on human rights in the host country. To do this, they analyzed the interactions between the Catholic Church and the governments of host countries.

Improving human rights and democracy

As part of their study, the researchers examined all papal visits outside Italy since 1964. The data shows that the pope often criticizes or praises the government during his trips. These statements provide an incentive for the host government and, in many cases, lead it to improve the human rights situation before the visit and strengthen democracy.

“This may be because international media reporting during the period of the Pope’s visit paid much more attention to the human rights situation in the host country than during comparable periods. »

According to the authors, the effects of papal visits have been observed not only in democracies but also in countries with autocratic governments. Besides Cuba, they cite as an example the papal visits to the Philippines in the 1980s and 1990s.

Comparative Political Studies, doi: 10.1177/00104140241237466