CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Dougherty, Dominic Aloysius |
|---|---|
| Title | Divided Nations, United Institutions: Abortion Norm Diffusion Amidst Human Rights Confusion |
| Summary | The member states of the United Nations are divided on the issue of abortion, some holding that women have a right to access it while others maintain that the unborn have a right to life. Nevertheless, the women's rights frame seems to have become the dominant one within UN institutions. How have abortion rights advocates managed to outperform fetal rights supporters when it comes to influencing the content of UN documents and policies, and to what extent have they succeeded in gaining recognition of a right to abortion? In order to answer these questions, I conduct a comparative case study of the effectiveness of abortion rights and fetal rights movements in winning support for their causes through UN norms in the areas of international law and international development. Analyzing several aspects of both spheres, I find that institution-specific factors lead to significant variation in outcomes of abortion-related advocacy within the UN. Despite these differences from one platform to another, a general trend can be observed. When decisions are primarily in the hands of the states, the tendency is towards stalemate because of deep divisions. But where UN staff and experts have control, the abortion rights movement has been substantially more successful than its rival due to closer connections and shared interests with the organization and its agencies. |
| Supervisor | Greskovits, Béla |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/dougherty_dominic.pdf |
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