Increasingly, scholars have begun to emphasise the issue of global inequality in the field of INGOs, an issue typically underemphasised in early scholarship on the so-called world polity, world society, or global civil society. We build on earlier research on transnational social movement organisations (TSMOs), and focus specifically on the ...
(Show more)Increasingly, scholars have begun to emphasise the issue of global inequality in the field of INGOs, an issue typically underemphasised in early scholarship on the so-called world polity, world society, or global civil society. We build on earlier research on transnational social movement organisations (TSMOs), and focus specifically on the Human Rights (HR) movement. Using new data from the Union of International Association’s Yearbook of International Organizations, We extend earlier data on the years 1953-2003 (Smith and Wiest 2012) to recent years (2016), and look at HR international non-governmental organisations (HRINGOs) to investigate whether earlier conclusions about TSMOs hold up in this specific movement. Looking at lifespan, geographical reach, issue areas, organizational structure, and global connections (to IGOs and other INGOs), are HRINGOs in the Global South and North becoming more similar or different? If there are persistent North-South differences among HRINGOs across the globe, is this due to an inequality of connections or an inequality of resources? Are civil and political rights, on the one hand, and cultural and economic rights, on the other, divided between Northern and Southern organisations, or have such divisions faded away? If there is a tendency toward multi-issue, intersectional movement agendas and frames in the HR sphere, is this a cultural script diffusing from scholars and activists in the Global North, or a response from Southern organisations dealing with intertwined issues on the ground? Our analysis of the new dataset sheds critical light on the history of the HR movement, and reinvestigates theoretical debates between more materialist and more institutionalist accounts of social movements, transnational advocacy, and international governance.
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