Backlash

1
Backlash

• The Limits of Transnational (Human Rights)
  Activism

2
Overview

• What is transnational human rights activism?
• Sources of the recent backlash
• Focal points of the backlash
• The idea Human rights
• The sender NGOs
• The strategy Transnationalism
• The target States and other global actors

3
NGOs as Global Players

• Explaining the power of human rights
  (Keck/Sikkink, Activists beyond Borders).
• Transnational mobilization
• Information and symbolic politics
• Shaming strategies
• Boomerang pattern

4
Why skepticism?

• Can we talk of progress if major human rights
  violations and atrocities persist?
• The case of slavery
• The case of genocide
• Torture and the war on terrorism

5
Sources of Backlash

• Challenge driven by
• Success of transnational activism
  http//www.ngowatch.org
• Failures of transnational activism Academic
  research/ professionals
• A new generation of research questions initial
  assumptions about the effectiveness of
  transnational activism.
• Challenges focuses on
• The inherent logic of transnational mobilization
• The changing circumstances of transnational
  mobilization

6
Focal points

• The inherent logic of transnational mobilization
• Dominance of Western values
• The changing circumstances of transnational
  mobilization
• Adverse effects from the growth of the sector
  (competition, weakening accountability)
• State reactions

7
Understanding the Limits

• The norm Human Rights
• The sender Non-governmental activism
• The format Transnational mobilization
• The targets States and other non-state actors

8
The Norm Human Rights I

• Normative considerations
• The idea of human rights is a hegemonic project
  which crowds out the field of emancipatory
  possibility.
• The idea of human rights privileges individual
  rights over collective experiences.
• The idea of human rights discourages the
  negotiation of distributional conflicts and
  engagement in politics.
• The idea of human rights defines minimal
  standards, not open-ended possibilities.
• Examples David Kennedy, Martha Nussbaum, etc.

9
The Norm Human Rights II

• Practical considerations
• Transitional justice demands endanger the
  successful negotiation of democratization and
  gives spoilers incentives to resist.
• Political bargaining Incentives for former
  members of the regime to relinquish power and lay
  down arms.
• Misunderstood idealism undermines the
  establishment of democracy.
• Example Jack Snyder

10
The Sender NGOs I

• Charli Carpenter Why do Transnational advocacy
  networks not recognize human rights violations?
• Jim Ron NGOs choose targets based on material
  interests and media exposure, not objective
  needs.
• Stephen Hopgood AI is a church, not a NGO.
• Transnational activism is inherently
  paternalistic and fails to empower on the local
  level.
• Elite level transnational ties tend to ignore the
  needs of the local population (clean water, etc.)
  
• The campaigns promise too much and ignore rights
  conflicts.
• NGOs do not have significant enforcement power.

11
The Sender NGOs II

• A current example Kenya.
• Transnational human rights NGOs have been
  instrumental is challenging authoritarian rule
  around the world.
• After the transition to multiparty politics,
  ethnic violence has worsened human rights
  conditions.
• Transnational activists focus on human, instead
  of civil rights (such as ensuring participation
  of all ethnic groups).

12
The Format Transnationalism

• Clifford Bob Transnational activists force
  domestic activists to change their goals.
• Sidney Tarrow Transnational networks are
  difficult to organize and rely primarily on
  domestic resources.
• My own research
• Transnational activism takes on different
  meanings on the domestic level.
• Domestic activists become distracted from
  building effective horizontal networks.
• Transnational activism is effective in
  challenging authoritarian rule, but not
  necessarily in creating positive social change.

13
The Target States, etc.

• Emilie Hafner-Burton/Jim Ron States have learned
  to live with human rights activism.
• Accession to human rights agreements (as a result
  of NGO pressure) does not improve human rights
  conditions.
• NGOs have focused on states only.
• Human rights are increasingly violated by
  non-state actors, such as multinational
  corporations and violent groups.

14
Conclusions Despair?

• New campaigns
• Targeting multinationals
• Targeting root causes of conflicts
• Targeting enabling issues (small arms)
• Focus on compliance

15
References

• Bob, Clifford. 2005. The Marketing of Rebellion
  Insurgents, Media, and International Activism.
  Cambridge Cambridge University Press.
• Carpenter, R. Charli. 2007. "Setting the Advocacy
  Agenda Theorizing Issue Emergence and
  Nonemergence in Transnational Advocacy Networks."
  International Studies Quarterly 51 (1) 99-120.
• Cooley, Alexander, and James Ron. 2002. "The NGO
  Scramble. Organizational Insecurity and the
  Political Economy of Transnational Action."
  International Security 27 (1) 5-39.
• Hafner-Burton, Emilie, and Kiyoteru Tsutsui.
  2005. "Human Rights in a Globalizing World. The
  Paradox of Empty Promises." American Journal of
  Sociology 110 (5) 1373-411.
• Hopgood, Stephen. 2006. Keepers of the Flame.
  Understanding Amnesty International Ithaca
  Cornell University Press.
• Ron, James, Howard Ramos, and Kathleen Rodgers.
  2005. "Transnational Information Politics. NGO
  Human Rights Reporting, 1986-2000." International
  Studies Quarterly 49 (3) 557-87.
• Schmitz, Hans Peter. 2006. Transnational
  Mobilization and Domestic Regime Change. Africa
  in Comparative Perspective. Houndmills Palgrave
  Macmillan.
• Snyder, Jack, and Leslie Vinjamuri. 2003. "Trials
  and Errors Principle and Pragmatism in
  Strategies of International Justice."
  International Security 28 (3)5-44.
• Tarrow, Sidney. 2005. The New Transnational
  Activism. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.