Human Rights Networks and Regulatory Stewardship: An analysis of a multi-level network of human rights commissions in the United Kingdom

Regulatory networks are increasingly important actors in multi-level systems of human rights governance. Yet we know little about the role that domestic networks play as intermediaries or about the strategies they use to integrate sub-national human rights institutions to ensure compliance at the local level. We draw on the theoretical literature on orchestration to conceptualise network governance and propose a new intermediary for the human rights governance, the multi-level network, which operates inside one country. We apply this theoretical model to the case of a multi-level network operating at the domestic level in the United Kingdom – Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Equality and Human Rights Commission, and Scottish Human Rights Commission. We discuss how the three commissions use the tools of managerial stewardship to facilitate intra-network collaboration and how they engage in hierarchical stewardship to gain access to international networks and take on a leadership role globally and regionally.