I’d like to recommend a great article I’ve just read, The Soviet Fall and the Arab Spring.

By an experienced human rights researcher, the article provides six ideas “about what has to happen after the revolution to make change stick”.

The six ideas are:

1. There is nothing inevitable about transitions to democracy

2. Guard against misplaced blame (I found this a particularly interesting idea)

3. Institutionalize strong minority rights protections

4. International institutions matter

5. Establish concrete human rights benchmarks and give them teeth

6. Support a strong civil society

However, in the case of the post-Soviet countries featured in the article, it’s more of a sobering lesson in how human rights have not always been prioritised, and how motivation (political, individual) plays an important role in the success – or otherwise – of attempts to “make change stick”.