International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article   Transnational human rights networks are a form of cross-border collective action created to promote compliance with universally accepted norms. Transnational networks against slavery and for women's suffrage existed well before the creation of the United Nations in 1945 ( Rabben 2002 ), but sustained scholarly attention to principled transnational activism only emerged decades after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948) and the creation of a new type of information-driven and impartial transnational activism, embodied in organizations such as Amnesty International (AI, founded in 1961) and Human Rights Watch (HRW, founded in 1978). With Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics ( Keck and Sikkink 1998 ), Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink established a new field of interdisciplinary research on the significance and challenges of principled transnational organizing. Unabashedly optimistic about the power of norms and networks, this literature focused initially on the ability of transnational and domestic activists to challenge governments and their repressive practices “from above and below” ( Brysk 1993 ). Unlike earlier attempts at establishing a transnationalist research agenda ( Keohane and Nye 1971 ), the new scholarship benefited from the simultaneous rise of the constructivist paradigm. ... log in or subscribe to read full text