Agenda Setting, the UN, and NGOs: Gender Violence and Reproductive Rights

Notes

NOTES INTRODUCTION 1. During the fiftieth session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in March 1994, Radhika Coomaraswamy of Sri Lanka was appointed as special rapporteur on violence against women. In 2003, Yakin Ertürk of Turkey became her successor (for further information, see Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/women/ rapporteur/). 2. E.g., the Women, Environment, and Development Organization in New York, together with other women’s NGOs, launched the initiative “Women Watching ICPD” to monitor the implementation of the program of action of the International Conference on Population and Development. CHAPTER ONE 1. For documentation of the growing influence of NGOs in international relations more generally see, e.g., Metzges (2006); Friedman, Hochstetler, and Clark (2005); Clark, Friedman, and Hochstetler (1998); Tarrow (2005); Khagram, Riker, and Sikkink (2002); Anheier, Glasius, and Kaldor (2001); Gaventa (2001); Korey (2001); O’Brien et al. (2000); Cox (1999); Florini (1999); Keck and Sikkink (1998); Fox and Brown (1998); Smith, Pagnucco, and Chatfield (1997b); Lipschutz (1992, 1996); Weiss and Gordenker (1996); Willetts (1982, 1996a); Clark (1995); Wapner (1995, 1996); Princen and Finger (1994); and Peterson (1992). 2. For a discussion of these conferences and the role of NGOs see, e.g., Friedman , Hochstetler, and Clark (2005); Clark, Friedman, and Hochstetler (1998); Friedman (2003); Chen (1996); Boyle (1995); Nowak (1994); and Finger (1994). 193 3. There are relatively few studies of agenda setting in international organizations , and those in existence draw on agenda-setting models from the domestic politics literature. See, e.g., Gordenker et al. (1995); Livingston (1992); and Vasquez and Mansbach (1983). 4. While the concept of framing has been primarily applied to study social movements in the domestic realm (e.g., Snow and Benford 1988; Snow et al. 1986; Tarrow 1994), recent studies have employed the concept to investigate the role of transnational networks and movements at the international level (e.g., Keck and Sikkink 1998; Smith, Pagnucco, and Chatfield 1997b) and to policymaking in the EU (e.g., Pollack and Hafner-Burton 2000; Mazey 1998). For a critical analysis of the role of cognitive and normative frames in policymaking, see Surel (2000). 5. For a more elaborate discussion of these two types of strategies, see, e.g., Beyers (2004). 6. Other frame alignment processes can involve “frame bridging,” which involves the linkage of two or more ideologically congruent but structurally unconnected frames regarding a particular problem (Snow et al. 1986, 467); “frame amplification,” the clarification, or invigoration of certain values or beliefs contained in a particular frame (Snow et al. 1986, 469); or “frame transformation”—what Goffman (1974, 45) refers to as “keying,” involving the redefinition of activities or events that are already meaningful from the standpoint of some primary frame, in terms of another so that they are now “seen by the participants to be something quite else.” 7. See, e.g., Kriesi (1989), Duerst-Lahti (1989), Staggenborg (1988), Kitschelt (1986), and Jenkins and Perrow (1977). For comparative studies of political opportunity structures see, e.g., Soper (1994), Escobar and Alvarez (1992), and Brockett (1991). 8. According to, e.g., Gamson and Meyer (1996, 275), the concept “threatens to become an all-encompassing fudge factor for all the conditions and circumstances that form the context of collective action. Used to explain so much, it may ultimately explain nothing at all.” See also Tarrow (1988, 430), who deems it more appropriate to think of the political opportunity structure “less [as] a variable than [as] a cluster of variables—some more relevant than others.” 9. For a critical reflection on these conferences, see, e.g., Fomerand (1996). 10. For excellent discussions of changes in the rules for NGO participation in UN meetings and conferences, see Reimann (2006), Alger (2002), and (Willetts 1996b, 1996c, 2000). 11. Willetts (1996c, 54) notes that there has been a steady increase in the accreditation of NGOs, but that UNCED resulted in a dramatic upsurge. UNCED also resulted in an unprecedented high level of participation of Southern NGOs, which can be partly attributed to the location of the conference . 194 Notes 12. According to Reimann (2006, 54), foundation grants to NGOs steadily increased in the 1980s and skyrocketed in the 1990s. 13. See also McCarthy and Zald (1977). 14. The expression was also hinting at Abzug’s appearance. She always wore colorful...