In February 2008, over 120 members of US civil society representing a range of domestic non-governmental organizations attended a United Nations hearing regarding the US government's compliance with the International Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Racial Discrimination. In this article, I analyze a distinct form of transnational activism that requires US racial justice activists to identify human rights standards and principles upon which to build their assertions of racial injustice, necessitating a fl uency in the language of human rights and the ability to negotiate and lobby with members of a UN committee.
This article examines the organizing efforts of North American feminists from Canada, the United States, and Mexico during the preparatory period prior to the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa. Preparing for the world conference fostered a process where new transnational coalitions and new articulations of racism flourished; these often overlooked outcomes remain fundamental to understanding transnational feminist interventions at the UN world conference. A tremendous amount of strategizing and preparation preceded the successes that feminist activists achieved at the Durban conference. Based on qualitative methodology, which includes in-depth interviews and participant observation, my research shows that engaging with a contextualized form of intersectionality enables more complex dialogues about racism. Moreover, by highlighting women's activism in three distinct social locations, this article also encapsulates how national contexts shape feminist activists' goals and experiences in transnational spaces.
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