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Scholarship on the dissemination of human rights norms and principles has focused
predominantly on the socialization of nation-states into the values which have been
widely endorsed. I argue in this article that the socialization mechanisms, discussed by
such scholars as Meyer et al. (1997) and Risse and Sikkink (1999), do not capture the
complex processes of the negotiation of more controversial rights. Distinguishing between
hegemonic and counter-hegemonic human rights principles, I suggest that we need to
explore the ways in which human rights activists advance, interpret, and negotiate counterhegemonic
human rights. Focusing on migrants’ rights advocacy in the US and Canada,
I argue that pro-migrant activists draw on other human rights principles that do enjoy a
greater degree of recognition and/or on instrumental reasons to pressure nation-states to
grant more rights to migrants.