Double bind at the UN: Western actors, Russia, and the traditionalist agenda

Abstract

Abstract:This article is dedicated to analysis of the traditionalist agenda, promoted by Russia, in recent debates in the United Nations Human Rights Council (‘Traditional values’ from 2009 to 2013, ‘Protection of the family’ from 2014 to 2017). The traditionalist agenda could be interpreted as yet another chapter of contextualist opposition to the universalist application human of rights and as a successor to the cultural relativism in human rights promoted in the past by the Organization of Islamic States or countries from the Global South. This article seeks to challenge such an interpretation and instead makes the argument that the traditionalist agenda employs novel aspects of illiberal norm protagonism in the human rights sphere. The article undertakes an in-depth analysis of the discourse coalitions of both supporters and opponents of the traditionalist agenda, using the tools of discourse analysis in international relations and drawing on a constructivist approach to norm diffusion in international organisations.

The anticipatory politics of homophobia: explaining constitutional bans on same-sex marriage in post-communist Europe

“…Furthermore, the anticipatory logic may be observed in other battles of the so-called "culture wars" between progressive and traditionalist voices, including sexual and reproductive health and rights. These battles are not exclusively fought at the domestic level; conservative actors may also try to act pre-emptively within international organisations (Stoeckl and Medvedeva 2018). Scholars should thus take care to situate their analyses of LGBTI rights within the proper context.…”

When Do Opponents of Gay Rights Mobilize? Explaining Political Participation in Times of Backlash against Liberalism

“…The debate opposing the rights of gay and lesbian people is typically closely tied to opposition to bisexual and trans people in the global mobilization for “traditional values” and against “gender ideology” (Kuhar and Paternotte 2017). 10 Such mobilization, which was a central impetus for this study, is being charted by new research on the diffusion of homophobia by international nongovernmental organizations (INGO) like the World Congress of Families, in conjunction with powerful states (e.g., Russia) and international organizations (e.g., the Catholic and Orthodox churches) (Ayoub 2018; Stoeckl and Medvedeva 2018).…”

Reframing human rights: the global network of moral conservative homeschooling activists

“…All these are indicative of a general trend in international human rights law towards the recognition of the rights of individual members of a family, rather than of the family as a collective unit; notwithstanding the definition of the family as a 'group unit of society' in article 26(3) of the UDHR. Conservative actors reject this individualist turn in human rights law and insist on the family as a collectivity (McCrudden 2014;Stoeckl and Medvedeva 2018).…”