Agenda Setting, the UN, and NGOs: Gender Violence and Reproductive Rights (Advancing Human Rights)

In the mid-1990s, when the United Nations adopted positions affirming a woman's right to be free from bodily harm and to control her own reproductive health, it was both a coup for the international women's rights movement and an instructive moment for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) seeking to influence UN decision making.Prior to the UN General Assembly's 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women and the 1994 decision by the UN's Conference on Population and Development to vault women's reproductive rights and health to the forefront of its global population growth management program, there was little consensus among governments as to what constituted violence against women and how much control a woman should have over reproduction. Jutta Joachim tells the story of how, in the years leading up to these decisions, women's organizations got savvy -- framing the issues strategically, seizing political opportunities in the international environment, and taking advantage of mobilizing structures -- and overcame the cultural opposition of many UN-member states to broadly define the two issues and ultimately cement women's rights as an international cause. Joachim's deft examination of the documents, proceedings, and actions of the UN and women's advocacy NGOs -- supplemented by interviews with key players from concerned parties, and her own participant-observation -- reveals flaws in state-centered international relations theories as applied to UN policy, details the tactics and methods that NGOs can employ in order to push rights issues onto the UN agenda, and offers insights into the factors that affect NGO influence. In so doing, Agenda Setting, the UN, and NGOs departs from conventional international relations theory by drawing on social movement literature to illustrate how rights groups can motivate change at the international level. In the mid-1990s, when the United Nations adopted positions affirming a woman's right to be free from bodily harm and to control her own reproductive health, it was both a coup for the international women's rights movement and an instructive moment for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) seeking to influence UN decision making. Prior to the UN General Assembly's 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women and the 1994 decision by the UN's Conference on Population and Development to vault women's reproductive rights and health to the forefront of its global population growth management program, there was little consensus among governments as to what constituted violence against women and how much control a woman should have over reproduction. Jutta Joachim tells the story of how, in the years leading up to these decisions, women's organizations got savvy-framing the issues strategically, seizing political opportunities in the international environment, and taking advantage of mobilizing structures-and overcame the cultural opposition of many UN-member states to broadly define the two issues and ultimately cement women's rights as an international cause. Joachim's deft examination of the documents, proceedings, and actions of the UN and women's advocacy NGOs-supplemented by interviews with key players from concerned parties, and her own participant-observation-reveals flaws in state-centered international relations theories as applied to UN policy, details the tactics and methods that NGOs can employ in order to push rights issues onto the UN agenda, and offers insights into the factors that affect NGO influence. In so doing,Agenda Setting, the UN, and NGOsdeparts from conventional international relations theory by drawing on social movement literature to illustrate how rights groups can motivate change at the international level In the mid-1990s, when the United Nations adopted positions affirming a woman's right to be free from bodily harm and to control her own reproductive health, it was both a coup for the international women's rights movement and an instructive moment for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) seeking to influence UN decision making. Prior to the UN General Assembly's 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women and the 1994 decision by the UN's Conference on Population and Development to vault women's reproductive rights and health to the forefront of its global population growth management program, there was little consensus among governments as to what constituted violence against women and how much control a woman should have over reproduction. Jutta Joachim tells the story of how, in the years leading up to these decisions, women's organizations got savvyframing the issues strategically, seizing political opportunities in the international environment, and taking advantage of mobilizing structuresand overcame the cultural opposition of many UN-member states to broadly define the two issues and ultimately cement women's rights as an international cause. Joachim's deft examination of the documents, proceedings, and actions of the UN and women's advocacy NGOssupplemented by interviews with key players from concerned parties, and her own participant-observationreveals flaws in state-centered international relations theories as applied to UN policy, details the tactics and methods that NGOs can employ in order to push rights issues onto the UN agenda, and offers insights into the factors that affect NGO influence. In so doing, Agenda Setting, the UN, and NGOs departs from conventional international relations theory by drawing on social movement literature to illustrate how rights groups can motivate change at the international level. In 1993 the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women, condemning gender violence in both the private and public sphere as a violation of human rights. One year later the UN Conference on Population and Development approved a program that placed women's reproductive rights and health, rather than demographic targets, at the center of global population growth management. Each of these watershed events represented the culmination of a political process begun two decades earlier that was initiated and driven by the activities of international women's nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). While these developments may seem like political no-brainers, the evolution of this international consensus represents a remarkable shift in perceptions regarding women and their rights. Joachim tells the story of how this happened. She demonstrates how, prior to the 1990s, there was little consensus among states as to what constituted violence against women, and whether or how much control a woman should have over reproduction--what for some countries represented a violation of rights was for other countries a tradition or custom. Just how did the a consensus emerge? Joachim shows that women's organizations got savvy: they framed their issues in a strategic manner, seizing political opportunities in the international environment and taking advantage of mobilizing structures which they had at their disposal. Her framework builds a bridge between a rationalist approach, focusing on power and strategy and calculating actors, and a constructivist approach, emphasizing norms, ideas, and the interaction between agents and structures. Fittingly, Joachim's account is both academic and personal, blending theory and passions and personalities. Contents......Page 7 Preface......Page 9 Introduction: From the Margins to the Center—Women's Rights, NGOs, and the United Nations......Page 12 1. NGOs and UN Agenda Setting: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Framing Strategies......Page 26 2. Rallying for Peace and Equal Nationality Rights: Women's Organizations between 1915 and 1945......Page 52 3. Equality, Development, and Peace: The UN Decade for Women, 1975–1985......Page 84 4. Women's Rights as Human Rights: The Case of Violence against Women......Page 114 5. Reproductive Rights and Health: Women's Organizations and the Population Establishment......Page 144 6. NGOs and International Organizations......Page 174 Appendix: UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women......Page 196 Notes......Page 204 References......Page 216 B......Page 236 C......Page 237 E......Page 239 F......Page 240 G......Page 241 I......Page 242 L......Page 245 M......Page 246 N......Page 247 P......Page 248 R......Page 249 S......Page 250 T......Page 251 U......Page 252 V......Page 253 W......Page 254 Z......Page 255 NGOs and UN agenda-setting Rallying for peace and equal nationality rights : women's organizations between 1915 and 1945 Equality, development, and peace : the UN Decade for Women 1975-1985 Women's rights are human rights : the case of violence against women Reproductive rights and health : women's organizations and the population establishment NGOs and international organizations.